


Second Winter at Fire Lodge

by BritHistorian



Series: Fire Lodge [2]
Category: BLACKPINK (Band)
Genre: Cooking, Cooking Lessons, F/F, Gen, Ski lodge AU, Skiing, Snow-shoeing, Strap-Ons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-03-29 15:49:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 47,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13930284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritHistorian/pseuds/BritHistorian
Summary: Life at a ski lodge is unpredictable - you never know what's going to happen.  Jennie has made it through her first year as owner/manager of the Fire Lodge.  Unfortunately, the insurance company has weaseled out of paying for the accident that caused her parents' death, so she's still trying to run the lodge on a shoestring.  Fortunately she's got Lisa, Chaeyoung, and Jisoo - plus the new maid Sunmi - to help her keep the place afloat.





	1. Arrival day

Jennie Kim looked around the lobby of the Fire Lodge. She was about to begin her second season as owner/manager of the small ski hotel and was, if such a thing was possible, more nervous than she had been at the beginning of her first season. The insurance company had ruled that the helicopter accident that had killed her parents was an "act of God" and so there would be no insurance payment forthcoming. This meant that rather than having the cash reserves she had hoped for, the Fire Lodge was once again operating on the edge of insolvency. Cash was especially tight because she'd just had to use a chunk of her reserves getting the resort's old truck ready to (hopefully) last another winter.

On top of her money woes, there was added stress from the fact that her assistant manager - who should be showing up any minute - was her ex-girlfriend. She and Lisa had started dating last season, during Lisa's first winter working at Fire Lodge. It had been great, but as she was getting ready to leave at the end of the season, Lisa broke up with her. She said she didn't want to have to try to keep a relationship going long-distance while she was back in Thailand at university. Jennie could understand her logic, but that didn't make it hurt any less. She'd didn't know what the situation between them was going to be when Lisa got back - were they going to try to get back together again, or was last season to be just a fond memory? Based on the emails and phone calls they'd exchanged during the off-season, it could go either way. Jennie had considered not hiring Lisa back for this season, but that would have gone against her belief in keeping personal and professional affairs separate. Besides, there was no way she'd be able to find another assistant manager who'd work for as little as Lisa was.

Especially not since Lisa's job combined duties of assistant manager and maid. Jennie had hoped to be able to hire a full-time maid to take that weight off of Lisa, but the money just wasn't there. The best she had been able to do was to hire Sunmi, a local girl, to work part-time as a maid and take some of the work off Lisa. Sunmi had just moved back in with her parents after a particularly rought breakup with her last boyfriend, and was fine with working part-time and continuing to live with her parents while she got her head straightened out.

Then there was the matter of the kitchen staff. Chaeyoung, her executive chef (and another ex-girlfriend), and Jisoo, her sous chef, had started dating at around the same time as Jennie and Lisa had. At the end of the season, they went off to Seoul together. Their plan was for Chaeyoung to find a restaurant position while Jisoo started her first semester of culinary academy. Except for a brief email confirming that they'd be back on time for the new season, she hadn't heard from them at all during the off-season. She hoped they were still together, because she really didn't need drama in the kitchen, but she had no way of knowing. Like most restaurant people, Chaeyoung and Jisoo had unpredictable personalities, so anything was possible.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jisoo Kim held her breath as she maneuvered her girlfriend's car, a Kia subcompact, around another mountain curve. Chaeyoung had insisted they both get driver's licenses when she bought the car, but Jisoo still didn't feel comfortable with driving. She had to admit, though, that having a car for the trip from Seoul to Fire Lodge was a lot more comfortable than taking the bus would have been.

Jisoo was looking forward to sharing a kitchen with Chaeyoung again. Her instructors at culinary academy had all been great, and she'd learned a lot, but there was no way the atmosphere of a strictly business, all-professional kitchen could compare to cooking with Chaeyoung. She and Chaeyoung had cooked on weekends in their tiny apartment's undersized kitchen, but it would be nice to get back to Fire Lodge's kitchen, which she still thought of as "their" kitchen.

Her phone beeped again in her pocket - another email. Jisoo had made a lot of friends among her classmates, and they had all promised to keep in touch this winter while Jisoo was away. Chaeyoung had promised to teach Jisoo all the skills she would have learned during winter semester so that she wouldn't be behind when she got back, and her friends were keeping her up to date on what they had been learning. A lot of it was things Jisoo had already learned in her first winter at Fire Lodge - a lot of soups, a lot of breads. That was good - it meant the guests wouldn't be subject to an eclectic menu based on the academy's curriculum, and it also gave Jisoo a chance to work on her knife skills. Glancing down at her hands, Jisoo could still see the scar on her left middle finger where she'd cut herself last year. Knife skills were still her weak point, but she thought she'd improved enough that she wasn't likely to cut herself.

Over in the passenger seat, Chaeyoung woke up and looked around. "Hey, we're getting close!" She glanced at the clock. "I thought we were going to change drivers an hour ago?"

Jisoo shrugged. "You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't want to wake you."

Chaeyoung happened to glance up in time to see a sign listing distances to upcoming towns. "OK, well, stop when we get to town. We can have some lunch, and I want to have G-Dragon check the car over to be sure it's winter-ready, then I'll drive the rest of the way into Fire Lodge. I know you get nervous driving the road down into the valley." 

"That sounds great!" Jisoo said, her shoulders dropping as some of the tension left them. "Can we get lunch at Aori Ramen?"

Chaeyoung laughed. "I figured that's what you would want. Don't you ever get tired of chicken skewers?"

Jisoo shook her head and started improvising a silly little song about chicken skewers. By the time she ran out of lyrics, they were parking in front of Aori Ramen.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa Manoban got off the bus into the valley ski resort area, slung her duffel bag over her shoulder, and set off walking toward Fire Lodge. She supposed she could have asked Jennie to come pick her up, but experience from last year told her that Jennie would probably have quite enough on her plate getting ready for the new season without having to play chauffeur to her assistant. Besides, it was only a couple of miles.

The wind was blowing her hair into her eyes, so she stopped, fished a scrunchie out of her bag, and put it back in a ponytail. She wondered what Jennie would think of her new hair color - when Jennie last saw her, she was dying her hair blonde, and now she'd grown it out and had the blonde ends dyed to match her natural brown. 

Of course, her hair wasn't the only thing she wondered what Jennie would think about. Lisa was still sure that breaking up with Jennie before leaving for the off-season had been the right thing to do. But she didn't know if she wanted to get back together with Jennie or not. Or if Jennie would even take her back if she tried. She'd just have to play that by ear.

As she walked along, she found herself thinking about last year. She wondered how Jisoo and Chaeyoung had done during the off-season. She'd kept in touch with Jennie during the off-season, but hadn't heard from the kitchen crew. She knew that Jisoo and Chaeyoung were planning on going to Seoul so Jisoo could start cooking school, but neither one of them was good at answering email, and since they worked restaurant hours, she never knew when was a good time to call them. She hoped they were doing okay.

She crested the hill and saw Fire Lodge down below her. Everything looked much the same as it had when she'd left. She found her steps slowing down as she approached the front door, then forced herself to speed up again. She went inside and gave her eyes a moment to adjust before she looked around for Jennie. When she did look around, she didn't see anybody.

"Hello?" she called out.

From the back of the building she heard Jennie's voice. "We're not open for the season yet, but if you hold on a second, I can come book you for something later in the winter, if you like."

Jennie came flying around the corner and stopped short when she saw who it was. "Lisa," she said, "wow! You look great! How have you been?"

Lisa found herself at a loss for words. She'd forgotten exactly how beautiful Jennie was, and the sight of her took her breath away. She tried finding her voice, but it wouldn't come. "I... er, that is..."

Jennie laughed, then rush forward and swept Lisa up in a hug. "Oh good. I'm so glad I wasn't the only one feeling awkward about today."

"You were feeling awkward?" Lisa asked, incredulous. She couldn't imaging Jennie ever feeling awkward about anything.

"Well, yeah," Jennie said, letting go of Lisa but still standing close to her. "I'm not used to working with my ex-girlfriend."

"There is Chaeyoung," Lisa pointed out.

Jennie laughed. "That's true," she said. "Maybe I'd better date Jisoo so she doesn't feel left out."

"I think Chaeyoung would have something to say about that," Lisa said. They both laughed at this. Apparently things were going to be a little awkward at first, but nothing they couldn't work with.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung Park guided her car into the parking lot of G-Dragon's repair shop. She and Jisoo had eaten ramen and chicken skewers at Aori until neither of them could fit another bite. Now all she needed was to have her car checked for winter readiness and they'd be off for the lodge. They got out of the car and walked inside, a bell on the door ringing to announce their presence.

G-Dragon came out of the back of the shop, wiping his hands on a rag. When he saw who it was, his eyes lit up. "Hey! Haven't seen you since last winter! What's going on? Jennie's truck already broke down again?"

"What? Oh, no. I bought I car and wanted you to check it for winter readiness before I drove it down to the lodge."

"Well let's go have a look it," he said, coming out from behind the counter.

"What's this about Jennie's truck?" Jisoo asked. "I thought she was buying a new truck when she got the insurance money."

"Well, there's the thing," G-Dragon said, stopping and turning to face them. "The insurance company managed to weasel out of giving her any money, so she's still trying to run Fire Lodge on a shoestring.

"What?" Jisoo exclaimed. "How could they do that?"

He shrugged. "It's what insurance companies do. They're happy to take your money every month, but as soon as you need some of it back, they're all full of excuses."

Jisoo and Chaeyoung stepped aside while G-Dragon pulled the car into the garage, then hung around and chatted with him while he examined it.

"How the rap career coming along?" Chaeyoung asked him.

"Not too bad," he responded from under the hood. "I managed to get a couple of record companies to listen to my demo. Nothing's come of it yet, but at least they're listening. I'm just worried because if anything's going to happen soon, it's going to have to happen really soon, because I'm scheduled to go into the army next March and that'll put everything on hold for the next 2 years." He stood up. "Everything looks good under here. I'll just top up some of your fluids and you're good to go. Oh, and you still owe me a beer."

"We'll have to take care of that sometime when I'm not about to drive down into the valley. Maybe you can come down to the lodge some night before you ship out."

"Sure thing," he said.

As G-Dragon finished with the car, Jisoo looked at Chaeyoung and asked "What's Jennie going to do? She was counting on that money!"

Chaeyoung shrugged. "Beats me. Hopefully she's got the place booked solid and nobody cancels. And I'll need you to help me save as much on the grocery bill as we can."

Jisoo nodded and winked. "You got it, chef!"


	2. Chapter 2

Jisoo looked around as they left town and suddenly realized how long it had been since she'd gotten up that morning.

"Will you be okay if I take a nap?" she asked Chaeyoung.

"Sure - I'm wide awake. You get some sleep so you're rested when we get to the lodge."

"I think I will."

Jisoo leaned the seat back to get more comfortable. As she drifted off to sleep, she found herself thinking of the people who'd be meeting them at the lodge. She wondered if Jennie and Lisa would be getting back together. After all the drama they'd gone through in the process of getting together, she couldn't believe that Lisa had broken up with Jennie. Actually, she could: That was exactly the sort of practical thing Lisa would do. Just like not getting involved with Dahyun. Lisa had a knack for doing things that were perfectly right and practical but still made absolutely no sense.

Oh well, regardless of what happened, that was their problem to deal with. She just yawned and drifted off to sleep . . .

Only to awaken in a panic, struggling to catch her breath as her mind struggled to process where she actually was and what was actually going on.

"Bad dream?" Chaeyoung asked.

Jisoo nodded. "Yeah. It seemed to real. I dreamed the lodge caught fire and you were stuck in the kitchen and I couldn't get to you and . . ." Jisoo was on the verge of working herself back into a panic when Chaeyoung took her hand.

"It's just a dream," Chaeyoung was saying. "You're fine. I'm fine. The lodge isn't - oops, I need my hand back for driving - the lodge isn't on fire. It's just a dream."

"It seemed so real," Jisoo said, leaning her seat back up again, as she felt sure she couldn't get back to sleep. "You were screaming, and I couldn't get to you, and . . ."

"And it was just a dream," Chaeyoung repeated. "And if it makes you feel better, before we fix dinner tonight, we'll go over the lodge from top to bottom, making sure all the smoke detectors work and all the fire extinguishers are charged."

"That would - that would make me feel better," Jisoo said, finally starting to calm down. She looked around at the winding mountain road, cutting back and forth over switchbacks. So long as she wasn't the one trying to drive, so could take time to notice how beautiful it was. So long as it wasn't snowing. She laughed. Chaeyoung responded with an interrogatory noise and a raised eyebrow. "Oh," Jisoo said, "I was just thinking how funny it is that I work at a ski lodge and I'm afraid of snow."

"You're afraid of snow storms," Chaeyoung corrected her, "which is another thing entirely and probably a good idea. By the end of last season, we had you out on a snowboard, remember?"

"I've probably forgotten how to do that by now - the knowledge has been overwritten with instructions for how to make 10 different sauces."

"I'll have to make a point of getting you out on the snow early and often," Chaeyoung said. "By the end of the season you'll be able to snowboard and also make 10 different kinds of sauces."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa looked around the lobby. "The place looks exactly the same," she said.

Jennie shrugged. "Once the insurance company weaseled out of paying me, there wasn't money left for redecoration. There was barely enough money to keep the lights on all summer. I did all the repairs that I could myself, and even that backfired, because I screwed up fixing the upstairs plumbing and ended up having call out a plumber to fix the pipes and a carpenter to fix the ceiling that got flooded by my botched-up attempt at a repair." She pointed to an almost invisible patch in the back corner of the lobby. Lisa noticed that Jennie's eyes had started to glisten. "It's been so hard," Jennie said. "First I lost my parents, then I lost you, and I've been struggling to do all of this by myself and it's more than I can do."

"But I'm back now -" Lisa began.

"You're back," Jennie interrupted her, "but you're not 'back back.' Every time we've talked on the phone or exchanged emails has been a chance for you to tell me that you still love me, that we'd be together again, but you never said it. And now you're here and I just don't know. I can't tell where I stand with you, Lise." The tears that had been threatening to overflow her eyes finally did, running down her cheeks and smearing her makeup. "I just don't know where we are. And I'm sorry, I didn't want today to go like this, but I've been holding these things inside for months now and apparently I can't anymore.

Lisa took a step toward Jennie. She reached out to put her hand on Jennie's shoulder, but Jennie flinched away, so she put her hand down. "I'm here, Jennie." She began, speaking slowly and quietly. "I'm here. Maybe I'm not here in the way you want me to be, but I'm here for you as a friend and an assistant." Lisa stopped and took a deep breath and blinked a couple of times before going on. "Believe me, part of me wants nothing more than to get back together with you. It would be so easy to fall back into last winter's habits. But when I broke up with you in the spring, it was because I had a lot of things about myself that I needed to figure out, and I still haven't figured them all out yet. And maybe once I figure them out we'll get back together. Or maybe by the time I figure them out you'll have decided I'm not worth waiting for and you will have moved on.

"Or maybe you'll have decided you don't want me. I get it." Jennie drew herself up to her full height, which was still several inches slower than Lisa, dabbed at her eyes with a wad of Kleenex, and did her best to put on her professional manner. "Miss Manoban, I've just had a very disturbing conversation with my ex-girlfriend and I need to be alone for a while. Can you man the front desk? I'm not expecting anyone but Chaeyoung and Jisoo today, but I hate to leave the desk unmanned."

As she nodded yes, Lisa said, "I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Believe it or not, I was trying to not hurt you."

"OK," Jennie said, her voice breaking and indicating that things were anything but okay. With a sniffle, she turned and fled down the hall to her bedroom before another wave of tears could wash over her.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung parked in front of the Fire Lodge. She and Jisoo got out and stretched, glad to be out of the car for a while. Leaving their luggage for the time being, they went inside. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the lobby's dimmer light, then it took another moment for them to recognize the dark-haired girl at the front desk as

"Lisa?" Jisoo rushed forward to enfold her friend in a warm hug. Lisa awkwardly reciprocated the hug with one arm while waving to Chaeyoung with the other. Finally, Jisoo let her go. "I love your hair. When did you do this?" Jisoo finally noticed the odd expression on Lisa's face. "What's wrong?"

"I'm so glad you guys are here. Jennie's in bad shape. She yelled at me, then she started crying, and then she shut herself in her room. I think she's really mad at me."

Chaeyoung nodded. "How mad?" she asked.

Lisa looked down at the desk and said, almost too quietly for them to hear "She called me Miss Manoban."

Chaeyoung let out a low whistle. "So not good. Jisoo can you and Lisa bring in our luggage while I go talk to Jennie?"

"Sure," Jisoo said, shooing Chaeyoung off toward Jennie's room. "We've got this. Lisa, is everyone in the same rooms as last year?"

"I don't know," Lisa said. "I didn't have time to talk to her about it. We'll just bring your stuff into the lobby for now. And Chaeyoung, thank you."

Chaeyoung sighed. "Don't thank me yet. We still don't know what she's going to say. But I'll do my best."

Lisa nodded.

Chaeyoung went down the hall, stood outside Jennie's door for a second to steel her nerves, then knocked on the door at the same time as she opened it and walked in. Jennie turned to see who was invading her room, saw it was Chaeyoung, then ran to her and embraced her. "Chaeng, I'm so glad you're here."

"We just got here," Chaeyoung said. "Miss Manoban is helping Jisoo get the luggage out of the car right now."

Jennie drew back from Chaeyoung and set down on the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands. "Oh my God. I called her that, didn't I?"

Chaeyoung nodded. "You did, and she knows you well enough to know what that means."

Jennie looked up. "She does?"

Chaeyoung nodded again. "I still remember after we broke up, you called me Miss Park for a week. It's the sort of thing you don't forget. When you like someone, you're as good a friend as anyone could ask for. And when you turn that off, you're cold, Jennie. She's probably wondering if you're about to come throw her out."

"I would never!"

"She doesn't know that." Chaeyoung sat down on the bed next to Jennie. "Why don't you tell me all about it?"

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jennie leaned against Chaeyoung, resting her head on her friend's shoulder. Several times she took a deep breath as if she was about to start talking, but each time her nerve failed her and she let it out as a sigh. Finally she began.

"I thought about not hiring Lisa back this year, but that goes against the lodge policy of keeping personal and professional life separate. I thought I could handle working alongside her and not dating her anymore. But at the same time, I don't know that I ever honestly considered the situation where we didn't get back together."

She stopped for a moment and then went on. "We talked on the phone 11 times during the off-season, and emailed back and forth 27 times, and not once did she ever refer to us being together last year. It was like it had never happened. So then when she showed up today and still didn't mention it, I lost it and blew up at her."

She sat up and looked toward Chaeyoung. "And I know you're going to say I'm not being fair to her, and when you ask, I'll tell you that she'd been here about 10 minutes before I blew my top. And I'll remind you that patience was never my strong suit."

Chaeyoung let out a little chuckle. "Do I even need to be here for this conversation? It sounds like you've got my parts all figured out."

Jennie looked at Chaeyoung, her face a mask of stunned seriousness. "Don't even joke like that, Chaeng. I'll always need you. You and Jisoo, Lisa and G-Dragon - you four are all the friends I've got in the world. I can't afford to lose any of you."

"Well then you'd better letter the others know how you feel, because right now Lisa's deathly afraid of you and I don't think Jisoo's entirely sure you even know she's alive. I don't think you burned any bridges today, but you were definitely standing there throwing matches at one."

"You always know what to say to make me feel better," Jennie said sarcastically.

"I'm not trying to make you feel better," Chaeyoung said. "I'm trying to make you see how you're hurting people, even though you don't mean to. I can tell that Lisa still loves you as much as she ever did. So if she's saying - either with words or actions - that she can't be with you right now, you need to accept that there's a damn good reason. I don't know if you two are going to get back together, and neither does anyone else. It's either going to happen or it's not. And the only thing that's in your power is to keep it from happening. There's nothing you can do to bring her to you, but you sure as hell can push her away. Right now I think she's hurting just as much as you are. Now, I'm going back to the lobby. You need to be there within 5 minutes, happy to see everyone, and with an apology ready for Lisa."

Jennie nodded. "You're right." She looked at up Chaeyoung. "What's it like being right all the time?"

"It's frightening, because someday I'm not going to be right and all hell's gonna break loose."


	3. Chapter 3

Lisa and Jisoo had finishing brining in the luggage and were chatting across the front desk, each getting caught up on what the other had been doing during the off-season, when Chaeyoung came out from Jennie's room.

"I think you'll see a different side of Jennie when she comes out in a few minutes," Chaeyoung said to Lisa.

"What did you do to her?" Lisa asked, somewhat awestruck that Chaeng had apparently been able to reset Jennie's mood just like that.

Chaeyoung shrugged. "I just reminded her of some things - nothing any good friend wouldn't have done."

"Well, thank you," Lisa said, hoping that everything was going to turn out as well and Chaeyoung seemed to think it would.

Chaeyoung came up and hugged Lisa across the desk. "It's gonna be OK. You'll see."

Lisa smiled weakly and nodded, doing her best to borrow some of Chaeyoung's confidence here.

"Now then," Chaeyoung said, turning to Jisoo, "I believe we had some smoke alarms and fire extinguishers to check out?"

Jisoo took Chaeyoung's hand and the two of them headed off up the stairs. Lisa watched them go, sighing quietly. There was a logic in Jisoo and Chaeyoung's relationship, even if no one else could see it. That was what Lisa wanted - someone who made sense in her life. Maybe Jennie was that person. Part of her really hoped so, while another part was watching carefully, standing guard over her heart, to see if she really was.

Lisa wandered around the room, still stretching out the kinks of the long bus ride. The Fire Lodge had a classic "ski chalet" decor. None of it had been changed since Jennie's parents died, and most of it for a number of years before that. It was sort of a time capsule of a lost golden age of ski resorts. Lisa wondered what it would be like to live at the lodge year-round. Of course, she thought, as she put another log on the fire, that would depend. A large part of it would depend on why she was living here year-round. Was she here year-round because she was a full-time assistant manager? Or was she here year-round because she and Jennie were a couple again? Or was she here year-round because she and Jennie were a couple again AND she was a full-time assistant manager? As she warmed her hands by the fire, Lisa played out all the scenarios in her mind. They were all desirable, in their way, though certainly some were more desireable than others.

Just then Lisa heard the sound of a throat being quietly cleared. She turned and saw Jennie standing by the front desk, running her hand along the edge of the desk, trying to will herself to come closer to Lisa. Lisa saw the difficulty Jennie was having and knew that it would be cruel of her not to make this easier for her.

"Why don't I go make up some cocoa?" Lisa asked. "Then we can sit down and talk."

Jennie nodded, smiled weakly, and said "Maybe we could take it out on the back deck? I don't think I've been outside in the past week."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jisoo and Chaeyoung started with the smoke alarm at the far end of the upstairs hall, with a plan to work their way down the hall, then check the first floor, then the cellar before going into the kitchen to start dinner. Chaeyoung pressed the test button on the first smoke alert. The resulting shriek almost caused Jisoo to jump out of her skin.

"Well," Chaeyoung said smiling at her, "there's one that works!"

As they made their way down the hall, they found - as expected - that everything was in order. Even if the inspectors in the valley weren't so vigilant in their jobs, Jennie wasn't about to risk her guests lives by skimping on safety equipment. Fairly soon they came to the small staff bedroom that had been Jisoo's last year. Unable to resist, Jisoo kicked off her shoes and lay down on the bed, reaching out to beckon Chaeyoung to join her.

"Remember the beginning of last year," Jisoo said, "when Lisa and Dahyun were lost in the blizzard, and I asked you to lie down by me to keep me from being so scared?"

Chaeyoung nodded as she climbed into the bed and let Jisoo wrap her arms around her. "How could I forget that? Keeping my hands to myself that night was one of the most difficult things I've ever done."

"I wouldn't have minded," Jisoo said, nuzzling into the junction of Chaeyoung's neck and shoulder and nipping the skin lightly. "Truth be told, I was kind of disappointed when I woke up the next morning and you hadn't even touched me."

Chaeyoung shook her head. "I wouldn't have. You know how I am about consent."

"I know that now," Jisoo said, kissing her under the chin, "but then I thought you just didn't like me."

"That was a funny time," Chaeyoung said. "There we were, working side by side in the kitching, each liking the other one, each not knowing how the other one felt, each afraid to make a move."

"And then we finally did," Jisoo said, sliding up to plant a kiss on Chaeyoung's lips. "I still remember that afternoon every time I'm making bread."

Chaeyoung laughed. "I still remember you slapping at the dough when you were trying to knead it."

Jisoo held her girlfriend tighter. "Apparently I just needed some hands-on instruction." After a pause, she added "I'm looking forward to cooking with you again. In Seoul it seemed like we barely saw each other because I was at school all day and you were cooking all night."

"Well then you'd better let me up so we have time to cook dinner tonight. Otherwise it's going to be cheese sandwiches and mangoes for dinner tonight."

"Yech, mangoes!" Jisoo cuddled a little closer to Chaeyoung. "But can't we just make tomato soup or shrimp bisque tonight? We can throw those together in just a minute."

"We can, but I also want to make some sort of bread for tonight. If Jennie has any bread at all, it's store-bought white bread, and I think we all deserve better than that." Chaeyoung leaned in kissed Jisoo soundly. "Besides, we've got the whole rest of the season for what you've got in mind, my naughty little girl."

Jisoo blushed, and they got up to check the next smoke alarm.


	4. Chapter 4

Jennie and Lisa took their cocoa and went out on the back porch. It was cold outside, but not nearly as cold as it would be once the season got fully underway. There was a cold wind sweeping through the valley, though, peeking in at collars and cuffs of coats in search of exposed skin to pinch frostily. Almost without thinking, they sat down in their usual chairs, side-by-side near the firepit, which was currently cold, looking out over the valley.

Jennie waited, hoping Lisa would volunteer to start the conversation, but it soon became apparent that the cup of cocoa and moving out to the deck was about as far as Lisa was willing to go to make things easy on her. She figured it was probably more than she deserved, after her outburst earlier. Taking a deep breath, she dove right in at the deep end.

"Lisa, I'm sorry about my outburst earlier. I was way out of line there. And I know you don't owe me an explanation, but it would be really helpful - especially since we're going to be working together all season - if you could tell me exactly what's going on and where I stand."

"That's fair enough," Lisa said, pausing to take a sip of her cocoa, "I think you deserve at least that much." She stopped and looked out over the valley, trying to figure out how to start. "I guess the best place to start is to start at the beginning. You've got to keep in mind that I've known I was gay for less than a year. And that when I discovered it, I went from being single to almost getting involved with Dahyun to getting into a relationship with you in less than a week. From time to time last season I would stop and try to think 'what am I doing?' because my head was whirling, everything happened so fast."

"So when I was leaving the lodge to go back to school at the end of last season, I saw it as my chance to - for the first time - be a single lesbian. But I couldn't do that if you and I were in a long-distance relationship. So I broke up with you, and even though it was something I felt like I had to do, it was still one of the scariest things I've ever had to do. Part of me - a big part of me, to be honest - was afraid I'd come back to find that you'd found someone else. But I did it anyway. I had to know who I was when I was just me, not part of a couple."

"And before you ask, yes, there have been other women, and that's all I'm going to say about that. Anyway, fast-forward to today. I get back here and you apparently lose your mind at me, when I'm already scared. So at this point, Jennie, I think a lot of it depends on you."

"You were scared?" Jennie looked as confused as ever.

"Yes," Lisa said. "I was afraid I'd come back to find that you'd found someone else, or that you didn't want me back, or-"

"Of course I want you back," Jennie practically yelled. "I told you when you left that I'd be here waiting for you."

"Yes," Lisa replied calmly, "but that was 8 months ago. A lot can happen in 8 months. You're probably not the same person that you were then. I know I'm not. And also..." Lisa paused, drank the rest of her cocoa, and put the mug down before continuing, "Also another part of me - smaller, but still quite loud, was afraid that we'd get back together, and then we'd split up, and you and I would have to co-exist here as exes like you and Chaeng do, and I don't know if I can do that, so maybe it might be easier to just keep things as they are now, so the pain would be less fresh. And another part of me - you might think it's a silly part, but it's still important to me - wants you to chase me. I want to be pursued and wooed and have someone buy me flowers for no reason just to see the smile on my face." Lisa slouched back in her chair, looking out over the valley. After a long pause, she said "So that's where I stand. I can't tell you where you stand, Jennie. Only you can decide that" and then fell into an extended silence.

Jennie turned slightly in her chair and leaned toward Lisa. "I think-" Whatever she thought, she was interrupted by the sound of someone frantically banging on the front door, loudly enough to be heard out on the back deck.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung and Jisoo were down in the kitchen and had just put a bowl of bread dough aside to rise when they heard a loud banging coming from upstairs - insanely loud, if they could hear it down in the kitchen.

"Stay here, I'll go see what it is," Chaeyoung said to Jisoo as she took off for the stairs. Jisoo of course disobeyed, following right behind her up the stairs. They reached the lobby just as Jennie, with Lisa close on her heels, opened the front door to reveal a striking looking woman, perhaps a couple of years older than Jisoo, who had apparently been crying recently. Her long black hair blew in the wind, sometimes obscuring her face. She bowed deeply to Jennie.

"Sajang-nim," she began, "I'm sorry, but I didn't know what else to do. My parents and I quarreled today and they kicked me out of their house. I had nowhere else to go. I'll pay any rent you require. I'll even forfeit my pay if need be. But I must have somewhere to stay."

Chaeyoung looked at Jennie and saw that, as usual, her friend had already sized up the situation and made a decision while everyone else was still trying to figure out what was going on. "Sunmi," she said, "please come in. Can someone help her with her bags?" Jisoo stepped forward to help. "No rent is necessary: It costs me nothing to let you sleep in one of the staff rooms, and there's not much difference between you eating most of your meals here and you eating all of your meals here. I can't bump you up to full time right now, but that may be possible later. I promise-" here she stopped and drew herself up to her full height, which paradoxically only seemed to highlight how short she is. "I promise that as long as a Kim owns Fire Lodge, no employee of the lodge will ever be without food to eat or a bed to sleep in."

At this point Lisa came forward with a box of Kleenex she had grabbed from the front desk, put her arm around Sunmi's shoulders, and guided her to one of the chairs in the lobby. Chaeyoung smiled at Jennie, who seemed rather emotionally drained after everything she'd been through today, and bowed in praise of her. Jisoo noticed what Chaeyoung was doing and bowed likewise.

"Aw you guys," Jennie said, "that's so sweet, but really not necessary. I'm just doing what my parents taught me to do."

"Jennie," Chaeyoung said, "my last boss wouldn't let employees take home leftovers at the end of the shift. If you spent more time outside of the valley, you'd see how remarkable you are."

Jennie blushed, and returned Chaeyoung and Jisoo's bows.

Lisa came back, leaving Sumni quietly crying in the chair. "The lobby's getting kind of full of luggage," she said, "shall we do staff room assignments so we can start clearing it out?"

"Sure," Jennie said. "In fact, that sounds like something an assistant manager can handle by herself. I need to be alone for a little while." And with that, she started down the hall to her room, leaving them standing by the front desk and Lisa wondering what had become of the emotional, screaming Jennie from earlier in the day.


	5. Chapter 5

"OK. Let's get this taken care of." Lisa went behind the desk and pulled out the box of room keys. "Chaeyoung and Jisoo. I'm guessing you want the same room as last year?"

Chaeyoung looked at Jisoo, who smiled and nodded excitedly. "You got it. And I've got to get back to the soup if we're going to have dinner tonight."

Lisa nodded. "OK. Here's your key, and I'll help Jisoo if she needs a hand getting your luggage up there."

Jisoo said, "I should be able to get it all - we travel light" and took her key from Lisa.

"Let me know if you change your mind," Lisa told her. Then she turned to Sunmi. "There are two small staff single rooms or there's a medium-sized staff room with bunkbeds. It's up to you, if you prefer having a roommate or not. Either way we'll be sharing the bathrooms and showers at the end of the hall with Chaeyoung and Jisoo."

Sunmi thought for a second, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand before saying "If you don't mind having a roommate, I'd rather not be alone right now."

Lisa nodded. "I can understand that. You have a preference for top or bottom bunk, or should we flip for it?"

"Since I picked the room," Sunmi said, "you can pick your bunk."

"I'll take the bottom bunk," Lisa said. "I remember some nights last year I was so tired I just fell into bed, and you can't do that with a top bunk." Lisa laughed at this, and Sunmi actually cracked a small smile. Lisa handed Sunmi one of the keys to the double room to Sunmi, put the other on her keychain, and locked the keys to the single rooms back in the box. Coming out from behind the bed, she said "Well, let's go get settled in before dinner." She took her bag and one of Sunmi's and headed up the stairs. She heard Sunmi following her with the other bags.

When they reached their rooms, they put the bags down and Lisa ducked out to the linen closet to get duvets and sheets for their beds. They started chatting as they made their beds and soon. Lisa told Sunmi about her university in Thailand and Sunmi told Lisa about her plans to leave the valley in the spring and move to Seoul. When they had their beds almost made, Sunmi got up the nerve to ask the question she really wanted an answer to: "Are you the Lisa who Jennie was dating last year, and if so, what happened with that?"

Lisa stared at Sunmi, confused. Sunmi shrugged. "It's a small valley," she said. "Word gets around."

Lisa smiled. "Yes, that was me." She sat down on the edge of her bed, then gestured for Sunmi to sit next to her. She told her the story of how she and Jennie had gotten together, and how she had broken up with Jennie before going back to Thailand, and where things stood now.

When she finished, Sunmi looked at her. After an uncomfortably long silence she asked "What are you doing?" Before Lisa had a chance to even begin to answer, she went on "Seriously: What the hell do you think you're doing? I know you said Jennie was your first girlfriend, so maybe you think all girlfriends are like her, but let me tell you: If girlfriends are anything like boyfriends, they're not. If I had a man who was as wonderful as Jennie Kim, I'd be doing whatever I could to stay with him, and I'm not just saying that because if not for Jennie, I'd be sleeping in my car tonight. You ought to-" Sudden Sunmi stopped short. Then went on, more quietly, "But it's none of my business. Forget I said anything. Sorry if I stepped over the line."

Before Lisa had time to process everything that Sunmi had said, much less formulate a response, Sunmi was up and out the door.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

It didn't take Jisoo long to unpack - since she and Chaeyoung wore the same sizes and spent most of their time in kitchen uniforms anyway, all their clothes had gotten mixed up and they just left them like that. It made unpacking a breeze - jammies and underwear in the top drawer, kitchen uniforms in the second drawer, casual clothes for days off in the bottom drawer. Another five minutes to make the bed and their room was totally set to rights.

Jisoo was about to go downstairs to see if Chaeyoung needed any help with dinner when there was a sudden knock on the door. Jisoo opened the door to find Lisa with a haunted look on her face.

"Jisoo," she said, "I think she's right. Listen to what she said and tell me if she's right. And if she is right, what I am going to do?"

Jisoo motioned for Lisa to come in, then shut the door behind her.

Lisa stood in the middle of the room, breathing heavily, looking like it was only sheer force of will that was keeping her from bursting into tears. Jisoo walked up to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Who's right? What who said? Do about what?"

"Sunmi," Lisa said, staring out the window. "What Sunmi said. She said I'm an idiot, that's Jennie's the best thing that ever happened to me and I'm driving her away. That if anything goes wrong with me and Jennie, it's all my fault." Lisa shifted her attention to Jisoo. "She didn't use those exact words, but that's what she meant. And then she walked out and I was sitting there thinking she's probably right."

Jisoo nodded, taking in everything Lisa had said. "I think she's right. I was planning on saying pretty much the same thing, as soon as I got the chance. I wouldn't use those exact words either, but I think they do a good job of getting the point across."

Lisa started shaking her head and pacing back and forth. "I can't do it. I just can't do it. After everything I've gone through to prove to the world and her and me and everyone else that I'm my own woman, I can't just go up to her and say 'I'm sorry, I was wrong, please take me back.' I can't let her - anyone! - have that much power over me."

Jisoo caught Lisa up in a hug and pulled her close, managing to still the younger girl's incessant head-shaking. "Lisa. Lisa! Listen to me. You got Dahyun safely through a blizzard. You worked most of last season with a broken ankle. Not only were you able to make KARD happy during their stay, you were able to convince them to book for a week this year. So I don't want to hear about what you can't do, because I don't think there's any such thing." Holding Lisa at arm's length so she could look her in the eyes, Jisoo went on. "This is about what you will or won't do, and if Jennie means as much to you as you say she does, you'll find a way to do this. Sometimes love means making yourself completely vulnerable to your partner; I think that's where you are right now."

Lisa nodded. "I don't know that I can, but I've got to try."

"You've got this," Jisoo told her. "Now let's head downstairs. Dinner should be ready soon, and things always seem more possible after a bowl of Chaeyoung's soup."


	6. Chapter 6

Lisa and Jisoo went downstairs to the dining room and found that Sunmi and Chaeyoung were already there. Chaeyoung pointed to the sideboard, where there was a tray of deli meats, sliced cheese, and bread, and a box of mango pieces.

"I scorched the soup," Chaeyoung said, "and since we haven't done the first grocery run for the season, I didn't have ingredients to make another batch. So for tonight it's just sandwiches and mangoes."

Jisoo shuddered at the mention of mangoes, but went over to fix herself a sandwich.

"Where's Jennie?" Lisa asked.

"She's still in her room," Chaeyoung said. "I figured one of us would bring her dinner to her after we eat."

"I'll do it," Lisa said. If Chaeyoung noticed the significant looks that Jisoo and Sunmi gave her, she didn't say anything.

"That's fine," Chaeyoung said. "I've got to go do dishes after dinner."

"Want me to help?" Jisoo asked as she sat down at the table.

Chaeyoung shook her head. "The main thing that needs washing is the soup pot, and since I burned the soup, it's only fair that I wash it. You're welcome to come keep me company if you want."

Jisoo nodded. "What about you, Sunmi? Do you have any plans for the evening?"

Sunmi swallowed before answering. "I've had kind of a rough day. I might watch a video or two, but I'm going to go to bed early tonight."

By this time Lisa had filled a plate with enough stuff to make four or five sandwiches and was just finishing filling a bowl with mango. "I'm going to go ahead and take Jennie her dinner, maybe eat with her if she wants company," she said. "See you all later!"

After she was gone, Chaeyoung turned to the others. "So... did you two learn any more about what's going on with Lisa and Jennie? If there anything we need to do about it?"

Sunmi looked warily from Jisoo to Chaeyoung and back again, unsure what to say.

"It's okay," Jisoo said. "Lisa already told me what you said to her. And I agree with you, by the way."

Sunmi shook her head. "No, I went over the line. I shouldn't have said anything. It's not my business."

Chaeyoung reached out and grabbed Sunmi's hand, stopping her from getting up to leave. "You've lived in the valley long enough to know that everything winds up being everyone's business, especially when you're dealing with a staff as small as ours. I'd like to hear what you told Lisa - if you've already covered everything, there's no need for me to pile in on top of that."

So Sunmi told Chaeyoung what she'd told Lisa, and Jisoo told Chaeyoung and Sunmi about her conversation with Lisa. By the end of everything, Sunmi was shaking her head.

"Are we sure that getting them back together is the best thing?" she asked. "It kind of sounds like Jennie might be better without her."

Jisoo looked at Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung thought for a second before saying "Jennie and Lisa were really good together last season. And even if Lisa went kind of crazy in the off-season, Jennie will blame us if she thinks we had anything at all to do with them not being together. At this point, all we can do is stay out of the way, hope it works out well, and be ready to pick up the pieces if it doesn't."

"What exactly do you mean by 'pick up the pieces'?" Sunmi asked.

Chaeyoung leaned forward so she could speak more quietly. "I mean if Jennie and Lisa don't work out, Lisa will probably leave, Jennie will completely lose her mind for a while, and for a while you'll be the acting manager."

Sunmi's jaw dropped. "Do you really think it will be as bad as all that?"

Chaeyoung nodded soberly. "I hope things don't go bad, but if they do, expect them to go as bad as they possibly can."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Standing in front of Jennie's door, Lisa shifted the tray she was carrying so she could hold it with one hand and knock with the other. From inside, she barely heard Jennie's weak "Come in."

Lisa opened the door and went inside, peering through the dimness to try to locate Jennie. Once her eyes adjusted to the near-darkness, she spotted Jennie, curled up on the bed, covered with a blanket. "Is it okay if I turn on a light?" Lisa asked.

"Sure," Jennie said, pulling the blanket over her head. Lisa turned on the bedside lamp and moved the plates from the tray down to the bedside table. After a moment, Jennie uncovered her face and, squinting against the light, looked around. "Oh, hi Lisa," she said. "I thought Chaeyoung was coming."

"She would have," Lisa said, "but I volunteered to do it. I thought it was important that I see you again."

"Why," Jennie asked, "so you can tell me again how much you don't need me?"

Lisa recoiled as if she'd been slapped. "No," she responded. "To apologize to you and tell you how much you mean to me."

Jennie fumbled around for a Kleenex and dabbed at her eye. "Oh, yeah. I mean so much that you spend the first time we're apart for any length of time hooking up with other women and then you rush back here and throw it in my face."

"I didn't mean it like that," Lisa protested. "I just wanted you to know because if you were going to reject me for it, I wanted you to do it as soon as possible."

Jennie sat and blinked. "Reject you? Is that what you think of me?"

Lisa spun around as she talked, coming to a stop facing Jennie. "I didn't know what to think! You're my first girlfriend, hell, my first important relationship of any kind, but I was afraid if you knew what I'd done you wouldn't love me anymore. Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning and think about what I'd done the night before and I didn't even like myself!"

Jennie reached out and took Lisa's hand. "Do you really think you could do something that would make me not love you anymore? Well, OK, "she admitted, shrugging, "maybe if you killed somebody or something like that, but otherwise, no, there's nothing."

Lisa's eyes glistened. "How can you say that? You don't even know what I did!"

Jennie looked at her. "Because I love you, no matter what."

Lisa shook her head. "But that doesn't make any sense! How can you say you'll still love me when you don't even know what I did?"

Jennie laughed. "Because that's how love works! But if it'll make you feel better to tell me what you did, I'll listen. Tell you what: Start with the absolutely worst thing you did during the off-season, and if I still love you after that, I'll still love you after everything."

Lisa shook her head again. She released Jennie's hand and took a step back. "I don't think you know what you're saying, but here goes." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, balled her hands into fists at her sides, and released the breath. Opening her eyes, she looked straight at Jennie and said "I spent a weekend in Seoul with Dahyun."

Jennie rocked backwards and forwards, laughing. "That's it? That's the worst thing you did?"

Lisa blinked, confused. "You're not angry?"

Jennie stopped rocking and leaned forward toward Lisa. "I would have been surprised if you hadn't hooked up with Dahyun while we were apart. The only reason she didn't make a play for you last season is because I asked her not to. Once she heard we were apart, there was no reason for her not to move on you."

Lisa stood still, still blinking. "And you're okay with this?"

Jennie shrugged. "It's not what I would have wanted to happen, but it's happened and now you're back here, not in Seoul with her."

"I just don't understand," Lisa said, "I don't deserve you."

"Now you're just being silly," Jennie said, getting out of the bed and standing in front of Lisa. "What do I have to do to convince you?" She went up on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around Lisa's neck, and planted a kiss on her mouth.

After being frozen with shock for a moment, Lisa started returning the kiss, wrapping her arms around Jennie. They fell backward onto the bed, kissing and laughing and crying.


	7. Chapter 7

Disentangling herself from Lisa for a moment, Jennie glanced over at the clock. It had been almost an hour since Lisa had showed up at her door with dinner.

"We should go see what the others are up to, let them know that we're all right," Jennie said. She rebuttoned Lisa's shirt, kissing each patch of skin before it was once again covered by flannel, then pulled on her own sweatshirt.

Lisa grabbed the tray with their uneaten dinner on it and hand in hand the two of them made their way to the dining room, where Chaeyoung and Jisoo were still sitting at the table chatting.

"You know," Chaeyoung said, with a roguish glint in her eye, "you were supposed to eat the sandwiches, not just carry them around."

"I don't know," Jisoo said, "if you and I were reunited after months apart, I think sandwiches would be the last thing on my mind."

Jennie blushed. "We'll have plenty of time for that -"

"More of that," Jisoo interrupted, before Chaeyoung shushed her.

"Over the course of the season," Jennie went on, her blush deepening. "Tonight we wanted to come out and tell you that I'm okay - we're okay - and we're not going to be starting the season in a state of total chaos."

"That's good to hear," Chaeyoung said as she got Lisa and Jennie seated at the tables and got them started on making sandwiches. "Now you need to eat."

"Ummm, where's Sunmi?" Lisa asked.

"She went up to your room," Jisoo said.

"You got a room?" Jennie asked, her eyes wide with mock astonishment. "Aren't you going to bunk with me?"

"Well," Lisa said nonchalantly, "I thought I might need a room. I still might need it - no one's asked me to bunk with them."

Jennie got up from her chair and got down on one knee in front of Lisa. Taking Lisa's hand, and struggling not to laugh, she asked "Lalisa Manoban, will you make me the happiest woman on earth and bunk with me this season?"

Lisa leaned down and kissed Jennie on the tip of her nose. "Of course I will. A girl just likes to be asked."

As Jennie got back into her chair, Lisa got up, saying "I've got to go thank Sunmi. I'll be right back."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sunmi hit pause and looked up from the video on her tablet as Lisa came into the room.

"I just wanted to say..." they both said, before stopping upon realizing they were both talking at once.

After a moment of nervous laughter, Sunmi said "You first, Lisa-sunbae."

Lisa bowed slightly in acknowledgement. "I just wanted to thank you for talking some sense into me this afternoon. I really needed to hear that, and I'm glad you were brave enough to say it."

"I still think I stepped over the line," Sunmi said, "but if you're happy, I'm happy."

"I am happy," Lisa said. "Everything's okay with me and Jennie again, which is wonderful - and kind of confusing to be honest, but I'm not questioning it. Anyway, I'll be bunking in her room this soon, so it looks like you'll have a room to yourself after all."

"Do I need to move to one of the single rooms?"

Lisa laughed. "Because we've got so many other staff members clamoring for this one? No, enjoy the extra space - it's the least I can do. You can even switch to the bottom bunk, if you like."

"No," Sumni said, looking around the room, "I think I'll stay up here - it makes me feel safer."

"That's fine too," Lisa said, gathering up her luggage. "See you in the morning! I'm going to try to convince Chaeyoung to make French toast tomorrow."

"Good night, sunbae-nim. I'm glad you're happy," Sunmi said, going back to her video.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Once Lisa had dropped off her stuff in Jennie's room, she met back up with the others in the dining room and hungrily tore into her sandwich.

"So," Chaeyoung asked, "who are our first guests this season?"

Jennie finished chewing a bite of mango and wiped her mouth. "We're starting the season off with the Twices again. The first weekend will be Jihyo and Tzuyu at the end of the hall and Mina, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung in the presidential suite."

"Oh no! The terrible triplets!" Lisa said, making a show of being terrified. "What can they possibly be doing to use that many towels?"

"I'm sure Jennie would be happy to show you," Jisoo said teasingly.

Jennie looked at Jisoo as if appraising her. "I see culinary academy has brought out a new side of Jisoo. I think I like it."

"Yeah," Chaeyoung said as she reached over to ruffle Jisoo's hair. "She's a lot less shy now. You just have to remember to smack her down if she gets too far out of the box."

Jisoo laughed. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Just you wait 'til tonight," Chaeyoung said, turning back to her coffee. "Anyway, it sounds like a pretty low drama first week."

Jennie nodded. "I'll be able to give Sunmi an extra shift or two just to wash towels."

"I forgot about that!" Lisa said. "I'm not used to having an assistant."

"You'll get used to it soon enough," Jennie said. "I'm going to be offloading a lot of routine management duties onto you so that I can devote more attention to hostessing. Is that even a word, hostessing? Being a hostess. You know what I meant."

Lisa nodded. "So two rooms the first weekend. What about the second?"

"The second weekend we'll be hosting the rest of Twice: Momo, Nayeong, Dahyun, and Sana." Lisa knew that Jennie had all the reservations for the season stored in her head, but it was still impressive to see that in action.

"So three rooms next weekend."

"Nope," Jennie said, smiling slyly. "One of Momo and Nayeong and one of Dahyun and Sana."

The others were shocked to hear this - apparently Sana had finally gotten into a stable relationship, and it was with Dahyun!

"So that's why you weren't worried about Dahyun!" Lisa exclaimed.

Jennie shook her head. "No, I wasn't worried about her because you were here instead of there. This is just icing on the cake."

Lisa laughed. "Speaking of cake-" she turned to Chaeyoung- "can you please, please, please make French toast tomorrow?"

Now it was Chaeyoung's turn to laugh. "You haven't even finished one meal and you're already looking ahead to the next one. You're the kind of diner a chef dreams of cooking for." She looked over at the bread remaining on the tray, then did a mental inventory of the kitchen's contents. "We've got just barely enough bread. We've got eggs and milk. The spices I had left at the end of last season should still be good. Yeah, I think I can do French toast tomorrow."

"Yay! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!" Lisa cheered.

"Well," Jennie said, "I see what's getting featured in our next marketing email."


	8. Chapter 8

The next few days were a whirlwind of activity as they got everything ready for the season's first guests. Chaeyoung and Jisoo made a run to town for groceries. Lisa and Sunmi got the rooms ready for the guests. Jennie tried to help, but Sunmi and Lisa shooed her off, saying they had everything under control, so Jennie had time to write an extra marketing newsletter, get interviewed by a podcast, and book two new parties for later in the season. Finally it was Thursday afternoon. The bonfire ceremony would be that evening, after Chaeyoung and Jisoo got back from town, and the next day the season's first guests would arrive.

"What is this bonfire ceremony?" Sumni asked Lisa and they folded the last of the towels.

"It an old Fire Lodge tradition," Lisa said, "something Jennie's dad started. On the first night of the season, the whole staff goes out back and builds a huge fire in the fire pit. Then one by one we step forward and announce our goal for the new season. And after the last person has announced their goal, we all drink a shot of single malt scotch."

"I've never had scotch before - what does it taste like?" Sunmi asked.

Lisa pondered this question for a moment, trying to come up with a good answer. "It tastes like scotch - there's really no other way to explain it. If you don't like it, it's a small enough amount that you can just swallow it down quickly."

Sunmi nodded. "Now I've just got to come up with a goal."

They folded the remainder of the towels in silence, each deep in her own thoughts.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The sun was just dropping below the horizon as Jennie looked around, making sure everything was ready for the ceremony. The bonfire was blazing merrily. The shots of Scotch were sitting on the table nearest the first pit. Lisa and Sunmi were waiting inside - they had offered to help her build the fire, but she wanted to do it by herself. When she was building the fire was when she felt the closest to her parents. She could imagine them there with her and almost felt as if they could hear her.

Just then everyone came out and joined her on the deck.

"Is it time?" Lisa asked.

Jennie looked over her staff, proud of the crew of women she'd assembled, and nodded. "It's time. Chaeyoung, will you go first, get us started?"

Chaeyoung walked toward the fire, stopping on the way to pick up a shot of scotch. "My goal for this season is to keep the kitchen running so smoothly that Jennie never even has to think about it." She then rejoined the group at the edge of the firelight.

Jisoo stepped forward next. "My goal for this season is to become a good enough chef that Chaeyoung lets me cook dinner for guests by myself at least once." Jennie smiled - she couldn't help but notice the subtle stress that Jisoo put on the phrase "for guests." She could imagine Chaeyoung trying to let Jisoo fulfill her goal by cooking a staff dinner, but Jisoo was a step ahead of her.

As Jisoo rejoined the group, Lisa leaned over to Sunmi. "Are you ready to go," she whispered, "or do you need me to go first to give you some time to think?"

Sunmi shook her head. "I'm ready." She stepped forward, picked up her shot, and turned to face the fire. "My goal for this season is to get my head on straight, to not screw up this chance that Jennie-sunbae has given me, and to come out of the season with a plan for my future."

Lisa was next. "My goal for this season is to prove that I belong at Fire Lodge -" she locked eyes with Jennie - "in every way possible."

Finally Jennie stepped up. "My goal for this season is to make this the best season Fire Lodge has ever had. When my parents look down on me, I don't want them to be just proud of what I've done. I want them to be surprised that - with the help of my team - I've accomplished so much more than anyone ever thought I could." She turned to face the rest of the staff, then raised her glass in salute. "To Fire Lodge and the season!"

"To Fire Lodge and the season!" everyone responded as one before downing their shots.

They all clustered around the fire talking, anticipating the season to come, and no one noticed Jisoo slipping away and rushing back inside. They didn't notice she was gone until she returned with a tray full of mugs and a big thermos. "Who wants hot cocoa?" she called out.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

After everyone had had a cup of cocoa, they all drifted off to enjoy a last few minutes of peace before the guests showed up tomorrow. Jennie sat down on a bench by the fire and called Lisa to come sit beside. Lisa put her arm around Jennie's shoulders and Jennie snuggled up against her.

After a few minutes of staring at the fire, Jennie was first to break the silence. "So, about your goal," she began tentatively, "when you say 'every way possible,' do you mean what I think you mean?"

"I think so," Lisa said. "I finished university this last summer-"

Jennie sat up and looked at her accusingly. "And you didn't invite me to your graduation?"

Lisa reachd out and stroked Jennie's cheek. "I didn't even go to my graduation! I knew you didn't have time or money to come to Thailand for my graduation, and I didn't care about going if you weren't going to be there to see me. The university will be mailing my diploma here in the next week or two."

"Okay then," Jennie said, seemingly pacified, as she leaned back against Lisa. "We'll have to have a party for you when it arrives. Now, you were saying about your goal?"

"Oh, yes!" Lisa started over. "I finished university this last summer, and nowhere else I've worked has been anywhere near as wonderful as Fire Lodge. As far as I'm concerned, the only reasons for me to leave now are if you send me away or if you're coming with me. I hope that by the end of the season you feel that way too."

"The end of the season? What if I feel that way now?"

"I'd still want you to wait until the end of the season to decide," Lisa said, looking gently into Jennie's eyes. "A lot can happen during a season. I don't want you to spend February regretting a hasty decision from December."

Jennie wrapped her arms around Lisa. "I don't think I could ever regret you, but if it'll make you happy, I'll wait."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sunmi was curled up on one of the chairs in the great room, watching a video on her tablet when she heard a knocking on the door. She got up to answer it but was stopped in her tracks by a drunken voice from outside yelling "Sunmi! Your mama told me you're in there. Come out here and talk to me!"

She stopped inside the door and yelled out. "Go home, Ji-Hoon! You're drunk!"

"No, Sunmi! Not unless you come home with me! I love you, girl!" He grabbed the handle and started rattling it, trying to get in.

"Sunmi, come here!"

Sunmi looked over and Chaeyoung had just come up the stairs from the kitchen, still carrying her chef's knife.

Chaeyoung stood by the front desk. "Come here and let me show you how to deal with this."

Nervously, never taking her eyes off the knife, Sunmi came over and stood next to Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung put down the knife, picked up the phone, and dialed emergency services. "Hello? Yes, this is Park Chaeyoung at Fire Lodge. We've got a drunk up here trying to break down our front door. You'll take care of it? Thank you."

Sunmi released the breath that she just realized she'd been holding. "For a moment there I thought you were going to stab him."

"Stab him?" Chaeyoung laughed. "I'm not gonna risk damaging a 400-dollar knife trying to stab a slimeball like that. Your ex, I'm guessing?"

Sunmi nodded.

"Well, I've got to stay up here and make a statement to the cops when they come. They'll probably want a statement from you, too. And I'm guessing you won't want to be alone right now?"

Sunmi shook her head.

"Not a bad idea," Chaeyoung said. She leaned across the desk and hit the intercom button. "Jisoo? I'm going to be up here a while. Why don't you make some more cocoa and come join us?"

Chaeyoung grabbed Sunmi's elbow and steered her to one of the great room couches, than sat down beside her. "He'll only be locked up overnight. If he drove here, they can add on a DUI charge and he'll probably be locked up until afternoon. That gives us some time to put some things in motion to keep him away from you more permanently. We can go before a judge and get a restraining order against him, then if he does come around, all you have to do is call the cops. He doesn't even have to do anything - if he's within 50 feet of you, he can get hauled away."

"He wasn't always like this," Sunmi said, tears rolling down her face. "When we first started dating he was so sweet and considerate..."

"And then a few months ago he changed, right?"

Sunmi nodded. "How do you know all this?"

Chaeyoung looked at her. "I went through the same thing with one of my exes. I'll be honest with you - it's going to suck for a while. But you'll get through this. You're strong, and I've got your back, and so do Jisoo and Lisa and Jennie-"

"Oh!" Sunmi looked frightened again. "Do we have to tell Jennie-Sunbae about this?"

"She'd find out even if you didn't," Chaeyoung said. "She'll get a letter informing her that the police were called to her premises on such and such a day for blah blah blah. It's better if you tell her beforehand. Trust me - you won't be in trouble with her for this. If you want, I'll be there with you when you tell her."

"I couldn't ask you to do that."

"I know you wouldn't," Chaeyoung said. "That's why I offered. Believe me - we're all willing to help you. But you've got to let us help."

"OK." Sunmi nodded. "I would like you there when I tell Jennie-Sunbae."

From the back of the lodge they heard a door shut and a voice called out "Tell Jennie-Sunbae what?"


	9. Chapter 9

When the van containing the season's first guests pulled up, Jennie, Chaeyoung, and Sunmi were still down at the courthouse. Lisa and Jisoo lined up to great their first guests. The van parked in front of the lodge and Mina, Chaeyoung, and Jeongyeon piled out of the back. Jihyo had been riding shotgun and Tzuyu was driving. When the guests came into the lobby, Lisa and Jisoo made the requisite formal bows, but then things devolved into a cluster of hugs and everyone talking at once. Lisa made a point of congratulating Tzuyu on getting her Korean driver's licence. Tzuyu said the Korean driving test was much more difficult than the one she had passed in Taiwan. Jihyo teased Tzuyu about her love of driving fast.

"Everyone, if I could have your attention for a moment," Lisa said, in a louder voice than any of them had ever heard her use before. They all stopped talking and focused on her. "The kitchen informs me that it will be another couple of hours until lunch is ready. Would you prefer to go to your rooms and freshen up after your drive, or would you prefer to hit the slopes directly. The ski report indicates 6 inches of fresh powdery snow overnight, perfect conditions for skiing and snowboarding."

The Twices conferred for a moment, and decided to hit the slopes first. Lisa made sure to get the van keys from Tzuyu so she could have their luggage waiting in their rooms for them when they returned, then waved good-bye as they headed off to the slopes.

"You handled that really well," Jisoo said as she helped Lisa load up the luggage cart. "You got them in and out before they had a chance to ask where Jennie and Chaeyoung are."

Lisa looked up and down the road, hoping for the rest of the staff to return soon. "Hopefully by the time they think to ask, Jennie and Chaeyoung will be back and I can let them field the questions. I understand the importance of not letting the guests know about Sunmi's situation, but when you've got long-time guests like the Twices, who are as much friends as guests, it could potentially lead to some awkward conversations."

"I wonder what's taking them so long down at the courthouse," Jisoo said as Lisa put the last suitcase on the luggage cart and locked the van.

"Maybe there were a lot of people down there this morning and they had to wait in a line," Lisa said, carefully not mentioning the possibility that Sunmi might have run into problems in her question to get a restraining order against her ex. That was a possibility they didn't even want to think about.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

In the end, Jennie, Chaeyoung, and Sunmi got back a matter of minutes before the Twices came in, apple-cheeked and hungry from a morning of skiing and snowboarding. Like most lunches at Fire Lodge, this one was homemade bread and Chaeyoung's excellent soups - well, Chaeyoung and Jisoo's excellent soups. Chaeyoung had started the soups before leaving for the courthouse and Jisoo had monitored them and adjusted the seasoning as they simmered throughout the morning.

Sunmi's introduction to the Twices went swimmingly. She was entranced by their tales of running their adventure travel agency, and they enjoyed meeting another person who'd lived in the valley all their life. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Sunmi had been a couple of years ahead of Jennie in school, so they hadn't really known each other growing up. The only story Sunmi was able to tell was of Jennie hitting a home run in a championship game against their school's biggest rival.

"And she was so surprised," Sunmi said as she finished the story. "She just stood there and watched the ball sail over the fence. Everyone was yelling at her to run, but she was just watching the ball until it was out of side. Then she remembered she had to run the bases."

Everyone laughed at that, but not as much as they laughed at Jeongyeon impersonating one of their customers from a photo safari. The man's hat had blown off near a herd of elephants, and he was either unable or unwilling to understand that they couldn't just "pop over and grab it really quick."

"No one objects to getting extra time watching the elephants," Jeongyeon said, "so I parked the Rover a safe distance away and everyone broke out their binoculars and oohed and ahhed over the elephants. After a while, I noticed that one of the elephant calves had discovered the man's hat and was alternating between throwing it up in the air and stomping on it. I made a point of getting his attention 'Isn't that your hat that that calf is playing with?' I asked him. He happened to look over just as the calf brought both front feet down on the hat as hard as it could, completely flattening it. 'I never liked that hat anyway,' he said. 'I'll just buy a new hat when we get back to civilization.' Now his wife, if you can believe such a thing, was even denser than him. 'But you've had that hat for years,' she piped up. 'You always said it was your favorite hat.' But he was adamant. 'Nope, never liked the hat at tall. Don't know why I kept it as long as I did.'"

Mina laughed. "I don't think she was as dense as she made herself out to be," she said. "When they were in the rover with you, they had to be quiet most of the time. I dealt with them when they were back in camp. Every time he'd calm down and start thinking about something other than the hat, she'd casually drop a reference to his hat or the elephants into the conversation, it'd set him off again, and she'd just sit back, drink her gin and tonic, and be entertained. I suppose if you're married to someone like him, you take your pleasure where you can get it."

"The trip must not have been too horrible for them," Jihyo said. "When I called to check on them after their return, they spoke very highly of both of you and expressed their intention of taking another one of our tours next year."

"Ummm... yay?" Jeongyeon said, in a very small and uncertain voice. Lisa understood what Jeongyeon was feeling - when you work in the hospitality industry, you can't afford to alienate any customer, but the fact remains that there are some customers that you wish you could tell them off and then never see them again.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

After lunch, the Twices went up to their rooms for a little indoor recreation and Lisa finally had a chance to ask Jennie about the morning's trip to the courthouse.

"Well, yes, there was a bit of a line," Jennie said. She and Lisa had gone back to her room - their room, she supposed she had to think of it now - and she'd stretched out on her - their! - bed while she was talking. Lisa sat down next to her and started massaging her legs.

"Oh, that feels good," Jennie said. "Anyway, there was a bit of a line, but what really took a long time was the judge. He spent over an hour grilling Sunmi in detail about Ji-Hoon's behavior, their relationship, and the current state of things between them. It turns out that Ji-Hoon is the judge's nephew."

Lisa gasped. "So Sunmi didn't get the restraining order?"

Jennie shook her head. "Oh, no, she got it, and phrased in the strongest possible terms. I don't think Ji-Hoon is going to be enjoying spending time with his family anytime soon."

"Serves him right," Lisa said, nodding decisively.

"But enough about him, let's talk about me," Jennie said, smiling up at Lisa.

"What about you?" Lisa asked.

"I spent all morning up at the courthouse," Jennie said, "when I'd rather have been back here kissing you."

Lisa faked an air of nonchalance. "You wouldn't have gotten to kiss me much anyway. I was much, much too busy getting the lodge ready for the guests to arrive."

"And what about now?" Jennie asked, raising her eyebrows and trying to look pitiful. "The guests are all in their rooms. Would you have time to kiss me now?"

"I don't know," Lisa said, as she stretched out on top of Jennie and started kissing her all over her face, gradually working closer to her mouth. "They're in their rooms now, but soon they'll be done with whatever they're doing and they'll call for more towels." At this point her kisses were grazing the edge of Jennie's mouth.

"Sunmi can bring them towels," Jennie said, trying desperately to catch Lisa's mouth.

Lisa sat up. "I don't know," she said, looking pensive. "It's Sunmi's first day working with customers. She might need my help."

Finally, Jennie could handle the teasing no more. "Kiss me!" she snapped, grabbing Lisa's arms and pulling her down. She kissed Lisa like her kisses were life itself, exploring every inch of her mouth, sucking on her lips, not stopping until they both were gasping for breath.

When they finally did stopp for air, Lisa smiled down at Jennie. "If I'd known this would be the result, I'd have sent you to the courthouse long ago."

Jennie reached up and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Lisa's ear. "My little pabo," she said, smiling coyly, "that's just the beginning of what I've got planned for you this afternoon."


	10. Afternoon delights

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is nothing but smut. If smut's not your thing,feel free to skip this chapter - you won't be missing any of the plot.

Jeongyeon, Chaeyoung, and Mina went back to their room after lunch. While the others were changing out of their ski clothes, Jeongyeon ducked into the bathroom. After just a moment she popped out again, laughing uproariously. Chaeyoung and Mina looked at her curiously.

"You've got to come see this," Jeongyeoon said between laughs. "Apparently they remember our visit from last year."

Exchanging confused looks, Chaeyoung and Mina went into the bathroom, whereupon they both started laughing as well. Rather than the usual three towels, there was a gigantic stack of at least a dozen towels, with a note on top that said "When you need more towels, call the front desk."

"Well," Chaeyoung said, grabbing half the stack of towels. No use letting such excellent customer service go to waste."

As Chaeyoung and Mina started spreading the towels out to completely cover the bed, Jeongyeon grabbed a discreet black case from their luggage. Flicking the dials on the combination lock with practiced ease, she opened the case, revealing an assortment of silicone penises, attached at their bases to rubber harnesses.

"Chaeng," Mina asked with a slight whine in her voice, "since we're on vacation, can I wear your cock for once?"

"No way," Chaeyoung replied. "I have to deal with being the shortest one when we're not in bed, so I get to be the longest one when we're in bed."

"But, please?" Mina's voice became higher-pitched as she turned on the aegyo.

"Nope," Chaeyoung said as she unfolded another towel with a snap. As she leaned forward to spread it out on the bed, she leaned over and kissed Mina softly on the lips. "But if you stop whining, I'll fuck you first."

"Okay!" Mina said, as a smile suddenly lit up her face. She stuck out her tongue at Jeongyeon. "I get to go first today!"

Jeongyeon looked up from the harness she was adjusting. "You'll get to go second too - Chaeng and I are going to wear you out today!"

Mina's eyes lit up. "Really?" She ran around the room excitedly kissing Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung. "What did I ever do to deserve two such wonderful girlfriends?"

"You hear that, Chaeng?" Jeongyeon asked. "We're wonderful girlfriends. Remind her of that next time she's cross with us for not cleaning up around the apartment."

"Oh, I still remember it," Mina said. "That's why I hold you to such a high standard."

As the bed was now completely covered with towels, they all got undressed. Jeongyeon helped Chaeyoung into her harness, using the closeness as an excuse to touch the smaller girl all over. Once the harness was in place, Chaeyoung had a long, thick, purple cock sticking out from her crotch, curving up slightly at the end. If Mina and Jeongyeon found the sight somewhat incongruous, that was overwhelmed by the lust they felt knowing how good it felt when Chaeyoung used that cock on them.

Mina climbed into the middle of the bed and laid back, her legs spread. Chaeyoung crawled between her legs and knelt there, looking down at her with a wicked grin. She tapped her cock against Mina's clit several times, each tap sending an electric shock of pleasure through her body and eliciting an excited gasp from her. Jeongyeon handed Chaeyoung a large tube of lube, which she applied generously to her cock, dropping quit a bit on the bed in the process - fortunately the towels kept the sheet dry, so they wouldn't end up with a giant wet spot. Once it was fully coated, she rubbed it up and down Mina's slit a couple of times, getting her nice and slick, and then positioned her cock at the entrance to Mina's womanhood, ready to push it in.

Yeongyeon climbed into the bed beside Mina and they began kissing as Chayoung began pushing in. Mina broke the kiss with a surprised gasp as the head of Chaeyoung's cock slid inside her, followed by a relaxed sigh of pleasure as her body adjusted.

"Fuck me, Chaeng," Mina moaned. "Fuck me."

Chaeyoung began fucking her with smooth even strokes, going a little bit deeper each time, stopping when all but the last inch was inside Mina.

"Oh, that feels so fucking good," Mina said. "I think I can take the rest of it today. I wanted to try."

"Okay," Chaeyoung said, "but let me know if you want me to stop. I don't want to hurt you."

"It already hurts," Mina said, rolling her head back and forth, "but it feels so good too."

Chaeyoung started moving again, fucking Mina with long, slow strokes, pulling out until only the head of her cock remained inside her, then pushing in gently but firmly, trying to go a little deeper each time. Jeongyeon held Mina's hand and murmured words of encouragement into her ear. "You can do it, baby. You're such a good girl." After one particularly loud gasp, Jeongyeon asked her "Is that too much? Do we need to stop?"

Mina shook her head. "Just give me a second to get used to it."

Chaeyoung paused briefly, then started moving again. With each stroke, Mina's breaths became shallower and faster, her moans of pleasure more intense. Finally, Chaeyoung was able to work all of the cock inside her, pressing her pelvis against Mina's. Mina squeezed Jeongyeon's hand tightly as she came. Even through the awkwardness of the harness, Chaeyoung could feel Mina spasming against her cock. She wondered, not for the first time, what it would feel like to be able to fuck Mina with an actual cock of her own. Mina reached up and pulled Chaeyoung down on top of her, kissing her fiercely, thoroughly exploring the other girl's mouth with her questing tongue. After several minutes she pulled her mouth free and looked at Jeongyeon. "Why aren't you getting your cock on?" she asked.

Jeongyeon's jaw dropped. "You want more? After that?"

Mina nodded, a big smile on her face. "You two promised to wear me out. I'm just getting warmed up."

Jeongyeon looked at Chaeyoung. "We've got a busy afternoon ahead of us," she said, leaning in for a kiss.


	11. Afternoon delights, part 2

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Another rated M chapter.

Lisa pulled off her sweatshirt and leaned back down to kiss Jennie some more. Soon the feeling of Jennie's flannel shirt rubbing against her nipples had them as hard as little rocks. Pulling away from Jennie's mouth, Lisa stared into her eyes while she started unbuttoning her shirt.

"I missed you so much while I was away," Lisa said as she opened Jennie's shirt to reveal the soft mounds of her breasts. Cupping one breast with her hand, she rubbed the nipple with her thumb as she leaned down to lick the other nipple. Then she switched sides.

"Oh God, I missed you too," Jennie said, "and not just because of this."

"Well, yeah," Lisa said, lying down and looking up as she stroked Jennie's abs, "not just for this. But you've got to admit, this is nice too."

"Oh, yeah," Jennie said, as she reached down to stroke Lisa's hair.

Lisa scooted down until she was kneeling between Jennie's legs. She reached down and undid the button on Jennie's jeans, then reached for the zipper, only to discover -

"Button fly?" she asked incredulously. "NOW who's playing hard to get?"

"Well, if you don't want it that bad..." Jennie said, looking up and faking nonchalance.

"I never said that!" Lisa replied hurriedly, reaching down and fumbling the remaining buttons open. Jennie lifted her hips so that Lisa could slide her jeans down, exposing her tiny white lace panties.

"Oh my God! Those are so cute!" Lisa gushed. "It's like a little present for me!"

"You ready to open your present?" Jennie asked, lifting her hips again. Lisa pulled off Jennie's underwear, revealing her womanhood.

"Oooooh!" Lisa squealed. "Trimmed but not shaved, just the way I like it!"

Jennie laughed. "Why do you think it took me so long in the shower this morning?"

"To tell the truth, I didn't notice - I was grabbing some extra sleep. We can't all be morning people like you."

They both laughed at this - Lisa's difficulty waking up in the morning was a never-ending source of humor for Jennie.

"But I'm awake now," Lisa said. She leaned down and found Jennie's clit. Licking her fingers, she rubbed gentle circles around it, causing Jennie to gasp. For several minutes she alternated between sliding in finger in and out of Jennie and then using that finger to rub her clit, coating it generously with her own juices.

After a time she slid down and lay on her stomach between Jennie's legs. She propped herself up on her elbows so that her mouth was even with Jennie's clit. Sticking her tongue out, she licked it lightly, and Jennie gasped again.

"Mmmmmm," she said. "You always taste so good."

"I'm glad you think so," Jennie replied, "because it always feels so good when you're eating me."

Lisa licked Jennie's clit again, then lightly blew on it, then licked it again. Jennie was no longer able to speak, instead communicating her pleasure with a series of crescendoing gasps and moans.

Lisa increased then pressure of her licking, then opened her mouth wider to like Jennie's womanhood in broad strokes from top to bottom. Jennie reached down and grabbed Lisa's head, pulling her tighter into her crotch. She closed her thighs around Lisa's head and locked her ankles behind her back. Lisa was trapped, unable to do anything but lick and suck on Jennie - fortunately, that was all she wanted to do.

"Oh, God, that feels so good!" Jennie moaned.

Without stopping licking, Lisa reached down and slid first one finger, then two into Jennie and fucked Jennie with her fingers. Crooking her fingers toward the front, she found Jennie's G-spot and rubbed it. Suddenly Jennie squeezed her legs tighter around Lisa's head and lifted her hips off the bed as she came. Releasing her legs, she lay on the bed, panting.

"That felt so good," she said. She reached down and pulled Lisa to come up and kiss her. The rough feeling where Lisa's jeans rubbed against her made Jennie shudder. Wrapping her arms around Lisa, she rolled over so that Lisa was on her back with Jennie kneeling astride her. Putting her hands on either side of Lisa's face, she said "I love you so much."

Lisa sat up and kissed Jennie again. "As fun as this is," she said, "we've got guests and I've got to work."

Jennie pouted. "I think you can spend a little more time."

Lisa shook her head. "As much as I'd love it, I've got things to do. But don't worry - the guests leave Monday and then we can spend all day Tuesday in bed."

"Sounds delightful," Jennie said, leaning forward to kiss Lisa again, enjoying tasting herself on her girlfriend's lips. "OK, I guess I have to let you go." She pouted a little more, then climbed off of Lisa and gave her one more kiss.

"Don't worry," Lisa said, as she got up and looked around for her sweatshirt. "We'll have Tuesday, and then a lot of other Tuesdays after that."

"You bet we will," Jennie responded. "I plan on keeping you around for as long as you want to be here."

"You better be sure you know what you're saying," Lisa said, leaning in for another kiss, "because I can't imagine ever wanting to leave."


	12. Chapter 12

Jihyo and Tzuyu were the first ones out of their room that afternoon. After confirming the time for dinner with Sunmi, they hit the slopes again. About half an hour later, Jeongyeon, Mina, and Chaeyoung came out.

"Do you need me to exchange your towels?" Sunmi asked them.

"Yes, please," Chaeyoung said. Mina just blushed.

"We'd like to go snowshoeing this afternoon," Jeongyeon said. "Can you get the equipment ready for us?"

"I don't know about the snowshoeing equipment, but I can get Lisa out here to set it up for you." Sunmi had just picked up the phone to call Lisa when Lisa came up the hall.

"Did I hear you wanted snowshoeing?" Lisa asked.

Jeongyeon nodded.

"Right this way," Lisa said. "Sunmi, you'd better come to, so you can be ready to handle this yourself next time.

In the equipment room, Lisa fitted all the guests with snowshoes and poles, then gave them an emergency pack to carry and a laminated map showing the trails around the lodge. While she was reviewing the map with them, she sent Sunmi to request a thermos of coffee from the kitchen.

"Have any of you ever snowshoed before?" Lisa asked. All 3 guests shook their heads no. "I'd recommend the yellow circle trail then - it's mostly flat, and it should have you back here right around dinnertime."

After collecting the thermos of coffee from Jisoo, Lisa took the guests out back and gave them a quick snowshoeing lesson. They were all experienced skiers, so they were able to get the hang of snoeshowing fairly quickly. She got them pointed in the right direction, waved good-bye, and then went back inside. Sunmi was carrying an armload of towels down to the laundry room.

"Once you get those on to wash," Lisa said, "meet me at the front desk, please."

"Sure thing!" Sunmi replied with a smile.

When Sunmi came back to the front desk, Lisa said "Jennie told me you got your restraining order this morning. Is there any thing else we can do to help?"

Sunmi shrugged. "I don't think so. Right now the thing to do is wait and see if Ji-Hoon violates the order."

Lisa nodded. "Hopefully knowing that his uncle is the judge will help keep him in line."

"I hope so," Sunmi said.

"Tell you what," Lisa said, "how about I change over the towels and you can take a break until the dryer's done in about an hour?"

"Great, thank you!"

"You want to go snowshoeing or something?" Lisa asked.

Sunmi seemed to draw in on herself. "If you don't mind, I'd rather stay here, maybe sit by the fire for a while."

Lisa put her hand on Sunmi's shoulder. "You can't let him make you afraid to go out."

Sunmi nodded. "I'm not. I just - after her showed up here last night banging on the door like that, I don't feel safe going out just yet."

"Okay, but don't wait too long - the longer you wait, the harder it'll be. If you want me to go with you, I can."

Sunmi smiled weakly. "I don't think that'll be necessary, but if I need it, I'll be sure to ask. Thank you."

"Okay, well, go enjoy your break."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung came into the kitchen to see Jisoo stirring a pot of tteokbokki. She laughed. "I see you remembered Jeongyeon's favorite food."

Jisoo nodded. "It's also one of my favorite things to cook."

"That seems like a good start to dinner. We'll fix some rice and some side dishes and that should be plenty." Chaeyoung started gathering items from around the kitchen and laying them out on the prep table.

"Before we start that," Jisoo said, "I need to show you something in the pantry."

"Oh?"

Chaeyoung followed Jisoo into the pantry. As soon as they were both inside, Jisoo turned around, put her arms around Chaeyoung, and leaned in to kiss her. Chaeyoung was surprised, but her surprise rapidly turned to pleasure and she started kissing Jisoo back. When Jisoo finally let her up for air, Chaeyoung asked "What brought that on?"

Jisoo brushed back a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail and tucked it behind her ear. "Well, I just, while you were gone this morning, I got to thinking about how lucky I am to have ended up with someone like you instead of someone like Sunmi's boyfriend -"

"Ji-Hoon," Chaeyoung interjected.

"Ji-Hoon," Jisoo continued. "Anyway, I was just think how lucky I am, and this is the first chance I've had to show you."

Chaeyoung swung Jisoo around and then lifted her up and sat her down on a table next to a bag of potatoes. Then she climbed up and sat on the table next to her. "If you're lucky, then I'm even more lucky," she said. "I haven't ever been so happy as I've been since I've been with you."

"Not even when you were with Jennie?" Jisoo asked quietly.

Chaeyoung's eyes got big. "You're not actually worried about that, are you?" she asked incredulously.

Jisoo's silence spoke volumes.

Chaeyoung caught up one of Jisoo's hands and held it in both of hers. "Yes, you're right, Jennie and I have history. But most of that history is that we're much better as friends than we were as girlfriends. Even if I wasn't with you and Jennie wasn't with Lisa, she and I aren't going to get back together. That's just not something that's ever going to happen."

Jisoo leaned against Chaeyoung, resting her head on her shoulder. "I just. . . sometimes it's hard for me to believe that I'm enough for you. You're so loud and outgoing. I'm so quiet and shy. Even though you're younger than I am, you've seen so much more of the world than I have. Sometimes I'm afraid that one day you'll realize that you deserve someone better than me."

"Not gonna happen," Chaeyoung said, enfolding Jisoo in a tight embrace. "Like I said, I've never been so happy as I've been with you. Besides, haven't you ever heard the saying 'opposites attract'? Before I met you, I had no one to help me slow down. I was just living at full speed all the time, not even noticing if I was hurting people. You help me slow down, and calm down, and actually enjoy life instead of just living it. Thank you so much." After squeezing Jisoo tightly, she hopped down from the table. "Now come on, we've got guests to feed. We can pick this up after the dinner dishes are done.

Jisoo hopped down from the table, straightened her skirt, and took Chaeyoung's hand as they walked back into the kitchen.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

From the front desk, Lisa heard someone come in. The sound of voices told her it was Jihyo and Tzuyu. The tone and volume of their voices told her they weren't happy with each other.

"I was just being friendly," Tzuyu was saying as the door shut.

"Oh yeah," Jihyo retorted. "So friendly that you had to ride the lift up with that little blonde instead of reading it with me."

"She was scared," Tzuyu said. "I was just trying to help."

"Scared? Ha! If she was scared, then I'm the queen of Korea. She was playing on your sympathies to get your attention, and it worked!"

"Oh, you've really got room to talk." Tzuyu was getting really angry now. "I'm not the one who was making eyes at anything in a ski patrol uniform."

"I was just being friendly!" Jiyho retorted, her tone dripping with mockery.

"Oooooh! I can't believe you."

Tzuyu stomped up to the front desk. "Lisa, I hate to ask this, but I need a new room. I'll pay any extra fee; I just need a room to myself."

Lisa nodded sympathetically and handed Tzuyu a room key. "Room 2," she said. "At the opposite end of the hall from Jihyo. Just drop off the extra key to her room once you've finished moving your stuff. Do you need any help moving?"

Tzuyu shook her head. "I can get it. Lifting stuff and carrying it down the hall will probably help me calm down. Anyway, I'm sorry you had to hear that, and thank you."

No sooner had Tzuyu gone upstairs than Jiyho was at the desk.

"Sorry you had to hear that," she said, her voice of mockery of Tzuyu's. "No, seriously, I'm sorry that she's gotten you involved in this. It'll all blow over in a couple of days, and somehow it'll all be my fault - somehow it always is. Anyway, can you ask Chaeyoung and Jisoo to bring my dinner up to my room? I'm not going to be fit company for anyone tonight, so I'm just going to eat in my room and then go to sleep. Is it already if I stop by the bar and fix myself a drink to take upstairs?"

Usually guests weren't allowed to fix their own drinks, but that's the kind of privileges that came with being a friend/guest, like the Twices. Lisa nodded, and watched as Jihyo poured what had to be four or five shots of whiskey into an old fashion glass, then downed half of it in one swallow before refilling the glass and heading upstair. Lisa made a mental note to check on Jihyo after dinner. Or maybe get Jennie to do it. At any right, Jennie needed to know what was going on. Lisa picked up the phone and dialed the extension for their room. Jennie said she was just doing some paperwork and she'd be out in a few minute. Lisa knew that Jennie wasn't going to like what was going on - the mystery was what form that dislike was going to take.


	13. Chapter 13

When Jennie got to the front desk, Lisa explained to her about what had happened with Jihyo and Tzuyu and the action she'd taken as far as issuing Tzuyu a new room, which she didn't regret, and letting Jihyo fix her own drink, which she did.

"I thought she was just going to fix a drink, not TRY TO down the whole bottle in one glass."

"OK, so new guideline:" Jennie said, "guests with back of bar privileges don't get to fix their own drinks when they're that upset. But don't beat yourself up over it - you've only seen happy Jihyo before now."

Jennie thought for a moment. "I'd better bring her dinner up to her. She's liable to still be in a bad mood, and I'd hate to inflict that on anyone else. Besides, it'll give me a chance to check on her."

Just then the alarm on Lisa's phone went off. "The towels are done washing," she said. "I've got to go put them on to dry."

"That reminds me," Jennie said, "where are our other guests?"

"They're out snowshoeing," Lisa said. "It's their first time, so I sent them down the yellow circle trail.

Jennie nodded. "Good choice. Anything else I should know?"

Lisa shook her head. "Sunmi's on break until the towels finish drying. Jisoo and Chaeyoung are down in the kitchen. No phone calls, no emergencies."

"Sounds good," Jennie said, leaning across the desk to give Lisa a kiss. "I'll just hang out here and see you when you're done with the laundry."

Lisa smiled. "I like the sound of that. I'll be back in just a couple of minutes."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

It turned out that Chaeyoung was a natural at snowshoeing and had soon pulled ahead of Mina and Jeongyeon. She spotted a place where the branches of a huge fir tree hung down to the ground, creating a sort of cave. She ducked under the tree and looked up the trail, waiting for the others to catch up. Jeongyeon was the first to come into view.

"Over here!" Chaeyoung called, beckoning toward her tree. Once Jeongyeon was under the tree, Chaeyoung wrapped her arms around her and went up on tiptoes to kiss her.

"I like that!" Jeongyeon said, kissing Chaeyoung back.

Just then Mina showed up. "Hey!" she cried out. "I hope you brought enough for everybody!"

Chaeyoung laughed. "Of course we did! Get over here!"

Mina tried to wrap her arms around Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung at once, but their snowshoes got tangled up and they ended up falling in a heap under the tree. Fortunately no one was injured and they were able to get untangled fairly easily. Chaeyoung and Mina were just restarting their trailside make-out session when Jeongyeon said "Hate to be a party pooper, but we'd better get moving if we want to get back before dark. The sky's already starting to dim."

Mina pouted. "You're just saying that because you got all the kisses before I got here."

"Don't worry," Jeongyeon said, helping Mina to her feet. "I'm sure we've both got plenty of kisses left for you. Besides, it's your turn to sleep in the middle tonight."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Tzuyu stomped around her new room, unpacking again. She was so mad at Jihyo.

"How can she even think I'm interested in someone else?" she asked herself. "If two and a half years together isn't enough for her to trust me, I might as well do something worth not being trusted for."

She put on her favorite pink sweater and her tightest pair of jeans, then did her makeup. On the way out, she called out to Lisa "I'll be back late if I'm back at all. Don't wait up for me."

She made her way up the street and into one of the valley's many bars. She sat down at the bar, ordered a beer, and was about to hand her credit card to the bartender when she heard a female voice from behind her say "Don't bother with that card, Min-Jae. This lady drinks on me tonight."

Tzuyu picked up her beer and spun around to see who her new benefactress was. She saw a beautiful Korean woman, somewhere north of 25, but still youthful-appearing. She had the most intense monolidded eyes Tzuyu had ever seen, and an air of undefinable sadness hanging about her. "How do you do?" the beauty said. "I'm Baek A-Yeon. This is my club."

Tzuyu introduced herself, then asked "Are you often in the habit of buying your customers' drinks?"

A-Yeon laughed. "Only the ones that I think would be a better as a source of company than they would be as a source of money."

"And what if the person's not interested in keeping you company?" Tzuyu asked.

"They still get their drinks," A-Yeon said, "and I chalk it up as a night where I guessed wrong."

"Do you often guess wrong?" Tzuyu was enjoying this light, casual banter. She'd forgotten what it was like to flirt, and how much she enjoyed it.

"Not nearly as often as I guess right. You don't spend this much time working in a bar without learning to read people."

Tzuyu smiled her brightest smile at A-Yeon. "Well, you guessed right tonight. You want to join me here at the bar, or should I follow you?"

"I've got a table in the corner," A-Yeon said. "It lets me watch the whole place."

"Well then, let's go, and you can tell me what you see tonight." Tzuyu got down from her stool and noticed that she was about 3 inches taller than A-Yeon. Not that she minded that - she had often dated shorter women. It wasn't like she was doing it on purpose; it's just when you're as tall as Tzuyu, shorter women are about all you find in Korea.

A-Yeon took Tzuyu's hand and started leading her through the crush of people - even this early in the evening, the bar was crowded. Tzuyu laughed, enjoying the feeling of being pulled through this cloud of humanity by the charming woman she'd just met.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Author's note: This is Baek A-Yeon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQG-S4mU0U


	14. Chapter 14

Jennie balanced the tray on one hand as she shut Jihyo's door behind her.  Most people don't know that a hostess's duties at a place like Fire Lodge include being a therapist.  Jennie knew this, though, from all the times she'd seen her parents staying up late, talking things over with a guest who was having problems.

"At least Jihyo's doing better," she thought to herself as she made her way down the hall.  Jennie had brought Jihyo some rice, which together with time had helped to sober her up some.  And spending a couple of hours talking with Jennie definitely seemed to have improved Jihyo's mood - by the time Jennie left, Jihyo was able to smile a little, and was even looking forward to Tzuyu's return from wherever she had gone.

She looked up just in time to see Mina, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung coming up the stairs.  She moved to one side of the hallway so there'd be room for them to get past her.  "Hi there!  Enjoy your dinner?"

Jeongyeon patted her stomach.  "Definitely!  Let me know if Park Chaeyoung ever decides to leave here - I'd like to have her working for Twice."

"Yeah, right," Mina said, poking Joengyeon in the tummy.  "If you could eat Park Chaeyoung's food all the time, you'd be Twice the size you are."

Jeongyeon laughed.  "Yes, but the process of getting there would be so worth it!"

Mina gestured to Jeongyeon as if to say "You see what I have to deal with?" and they all laughed.

"Well, have a good night," Jennie said as she started down the stairs.  "Call the front desk if you need anything!"

When she got into the dining room, Jennie sat the tray on the sideboard and sat down to finally have her dinner.  Looking at what remained on the table she asked in surprise "There were tteokbokki left?"

Lisa laughed.  "It wasn't because Jeongyeon didn't try.  It's just that our Chaeyoung was a step ahead of her and fixed a double batch."

Chaeyoung help up her hands.  "Much as I'd love to take credit for this, this is all thanks to Jisoo.  She's the one who remembered how much Jeongyeon liked tteokbokki and decided to fix extra."

"Good job, Jisoo," Jennie said, as she scooped some tteokbokki into a bowl.  "That kind of forethought and attention to guests' likes and dislikes is what I want us all to have."

Jisoo smiled and blushed, obviously pleased with the praise.

"All in all, I think today was a successful today," Jennie said.

"Even taking Tzuyu into account?" Lisa asked.

"She's still not back yet?"

Lisa shook her head.  "She said she'd be back either late or not at all."

"Well," Jennie said, "she manages to get home safely the other 51 weekends in a year, so we'll just have to assume she'll manage this time as well.  If she's not back in time for lunch tomorrow, then we'll start worrying.  Until then, I hope she's having fun."

^   ^   ^   ^   ^   ^

"OK, let's see if you've been paying attention," A-Yeon said, pointing to a party of six who had just come in.

Tzuyu thought for a moment.  "Coors Light and a shot of fireball for each of the guys, and for the girls... appletini, appletini, and a dirty martini - no, make that a cosmopolitan."

"I think you're right," A-Yeon said, setting her arm in more comfortably about Tzuyu's shoulders.  "Now we just have to watch and see."

They were too far from the bar to hear when the first guy placed the order, so they had to wait until Min-Jae put the drinks out.  Three Coors Lights, three shots of Fireball, two appletinis, and - a dirty martini?

"What?  No way!"  Tzuyu was indignant.  "All the signs pointed to cosmo."

A-Yeon laughed.  "If it makes you feel any better, I would have missed that one too."  They both laughed, then A-yeon's face got serious for a moment.  Turning to face Tzuyu, she said "The bar closes in 15 minutes.  Are you coming home with me, or am I dropping you off wherever you're staying?"

Tzuyu looked confused.  "You coming back to my room isn't an option?"

A-Yeon shook her head.  "That's just not done.  It's a general understanding around here that if a townie and a tourist hook up, it'll happen at the townie's place."

Tzuyu frowned.  "That's a stupid rule."

A-Yeon shrugged.  "It is what it is.  If I went back to your lodge with you and one of the lodge employees saw me leaving, I could forget about getting any recommendations from that lodge for the rest of the season."

Tzuyu's frown lessened slightly.  "I suppose I can see the reasoning behind it, but I still don't like it."

A-Yeon ran her thumbs over Tzuyu's eyebrows, smoothing out the frown lines.  "So I'm guessing I'm dropping you off at your lodge?"

Tzuyu shook her head.  "Not unless you're trying to get rid of me."  She leaned forward and gently kissed A-Yeon on the lips.  "I want to go home with you."

A-Yeon smiled.  "Now that is a pleasant surprise."  She turned toward the bar and waved to get Min-Jae's attention.  "Are you okay with locking up if I leave a few minutes early tonight?"

He laughed.  "Get out of here already.  If i didn't know how to lock up, you would have fired me by now!"  They all had a good laugh at this.

A-Yeon took Tzuyu's hand and led her to the coat room.  Once Tzuyu had her coat, they went through the door marked "Employees Only" so A-Yeon could get her coat.  After they were bundled up, A-Yeon led the way through the employee's exit and escorted Tzuyu to her car, a small red Kia.  She opened Tzuyu's door first and helped her into the passenger seat, then walked around the car and climbed in.  As they drove through town, A-Yeon kept up a running commentary about the places they were passing.  Who was feuding with who.  Who was about to go under.  Who had just opened up and had no idea what they were doing.  Where to go if you want the best hamburger in town.

"I can't imagine," Tzuyu said.

"What?"

"Back in Seoul, the places I know are like islands in a sea of buildings.  I can't imagine knowing everything about every building in your town."

"That's the hazard of small town living," A-Yeon said with a laugh.

"Hazard?  It seems wonderful!"

A-Yeon nodded.  "And it is - so long as you don't stop and think that everyone in town knows your business just as well as you know theirs.  By this time tomorrow, it'll be all over town that you went home with me.  Not only that, but they'll know when you left, what lodge you went back to, and whether I drove you myself or called you a cab.  Are you sure you wanted to go through with this?"

Tzuyu made a big show of looking thoughtful before a big grin split her face.  "YES!"

"Okay then!  I like that!" A-Yeon said, sliding her hand from the gear shift to Tzuyu's leg. 


	15. Chapter 15

The next morning, A-Yeon's car pulled up in front of Fire Lodge. Tzuyu leaned over and kissed A-Yeon good-bye, the got out, waved to her as she drove off, and then went inside. The first thing she saw was Jennie at the front desk.

"Glad to see you got home safely," Jennie said.

Tzuyu smiled. "Thanks. Where's Jihyo?"

"She still at breakfast," Jennie said, jerking her head in the direction of the dining room. "Everyone but me was in there last time I looked. Go on in and get something to eat."

"Sounds good,"Tzuyu said.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

As Jennie had promised, everyone was in the dining room. Tzuyu hoped this meant that Jihyo wasn't going to start something - but if she did, it just meant that the whole thing would happen in front of all those witnesses, because Tzuyu wasn't in a mood to back down. She sat down in the empty seat between Jeongyeon and Jisoo, directly across the table from Jihyo. "Good morning everyone," she said cheerfully as she started filling her plate with scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausages. She got up for a minute to get a cup of coffee, then returned to her seat and started eating.

"Where'd you go last night?" Jihyo asked.

"Out," Tzuyu said, popping a piece of sausage into her mouth and chewing contentedly.

"I was worried about you," Jihyo persisted.

"You didn't need to be," Tzuyu shrugged. "I told Lisa I'd be back late or not at all."

"But that doesn't tell me where you are," Jihyo persisted.

Tzuyu thought for a moment as she chewed a bite of hash browns. "That's true. Nayeon didn't know where I was either and she's not freaking out about it."

"But she's not your . . . oh. Yeah. Right." Jihyo seemed to deflate a little bit as she slumped in her chair.

"I wasn't trying to throw it in your face, but, yeah." Tzuyu nodded.

"So . . ." Jihyo tried to regain her composure. "Did you have a good time?"

Tzuyu nodded, then took a sip of her coffee. "I did."

Jihyo thought for a moment. She felt like she was walking through a minefield - there were hundreds of wrong turns she could take, but only one right path. Finally, she asked "When you finish your breakfast, can we talk in private?"

"Sure." Tzuyu finished her hash browns then started cutting her last sausage into a bunch of tiny pieces. Finally, she pushed all the pieces of sausage for one side of the plate and said "I'm done. Your room, mine, or outside?"

"Why don't we go outside," Tzuyu said. "I think this is the kind of conversation that calls for neutral territory."

"Sounds good," Tzuyu said, as she got up and headed for the mud room to get her coat.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Once Tzuyu and Jihyo were outside, Tzuyu started building a fire in the fire pit. Jiyho offered to help, but Tzuyu said she wanted to do this herself. This gave Jihyo plenty of time alone with her thoughts as she sat and watched her ex-girlfriend build a fire. Once the fire was blazing, Tzuyu came and sat down in the chair next to Jihyo's.

"So," Tzuyu said, "I've done a lot of thinking since yesterday, and I'm sure you have too. Do you want to go first, or should I?"

Jihyo shrugged. "Whichever you prefer."

Tzuyu nodded decisively. "Then I want to go first." She turned to face Jihyo. "Yesterday I was really mad at you. But as I calmed down, I realized something: I love you, but I don't like the way you treat me. Yes, I'm younger than you - always have been, always will be. But that doesn't have to be the defining factor of our relationship."

Jihyo nodded. "OK . . ."

Tzuyu continued. "When I went out last night, I met a woman, and I spent the night with her, and it was totally different from being with you. This morning, as she was driving me back here, I realized what the difference was: She treated me like a woman, not a maknae."

"So . . . " Jihyo was on the verge of tears. "Does that mean we're over? Like over over?"

"I don't know," Tzuyu said. "I don't know what the future holds. But we're over for now. We're over until we get back to Seoul. And after that, who knows? If we do get back together, it will be because you've showed me that you trust me, and you value me for the person I actually am, not the person you want me to be. But whether we get back together or not, a lot of things are going to change."

Jihyo blinked rapidly several times. "It sounds like you've decided a lot of things. Doesn't really leave a lot of room for negotiation."

"I'm done negotiating," Tzuyu said. "I'm done compromising who I am so that I can be the person you expect me to be. I hope that whether we get back together or not we can still be friends, but a lot of that's up to you."

Jihyo sniffled and nodded. "You're right. So . . . what about the rest of this weekend?"

"For the rest of this weekend, we're friends. I've already told A-Yeon I'd see her again tonight. I'm not going to flaunt her in your face, but at the same time I'm not going to skulk around like I'm doing something to be ashamed of."

The tears finally spilled over and ran down Jihyo's cheeks. "I hope you're happy," she said as she cried. "I hope she treats you as well as you deserve. And regardless of what happens when we get back to Seoul, I want you to know that I love you, and I want you to be happy."

Tzuyu leaned over and gave Jihyo a hug, then she pulled a pack of Kleenex out of her coat pocket and handed them to her. "I know that. And I want you to be happy too, whether we're together or not."

Jihyo jumped up and looked down at Tzuyu, trying her best to smile through the tears. "I need to go for a walk," she said. "I'll see you later."


	16. Chapter 16

Jennie found Lisa at the front desk, where she was folding some napkins.

"Can you get Sunmi to do that? I'd like to take you out for coffee."

"Sure," Lisa said. "Let me go find her and we can be on our way!"

A few minutes later, Jennie and Lisa were walking hand in hand down the street.

"There's been so much drama with the guests this weekend, it'll be nice to have a few minutes of quiet," Jennie said.

Lisa fixed her with a devilish grin. "How do you know I won't start any drama?"

Jennie laughed. "I know what you want to start, and it's not drama."

Lisa playfully slapped Jennie on the shoulder. "That's not the only thing I think of, you know!"

By this time they were at the coffee shop. They went in, ordered their coffee, and sat down on a loveseat by the back fireplace. Jennie remembered last year, when she and Lisa had come here for their first date. She had been about to bring it up when Lisa said "Don't look now, but look who just came in."

Jennie glanced up at the front door. Tzuyu was coming in, and with her was "Baek A-Yeon?"

Lisa looked at Jennie. "From the bar up the street?"

Jennie nodded. "So now we know who Tzuyu met last night."

"Do we want to see them?" Lisa asked.

"We'll leave it up to them - we'll stay here and stay quiet and see if they come up to us."

They sat looking at the fire, leaning their heads together and talking. Jennie saw that Tzuyu and A-Yeon got their coffees to go. A-Yeon waved on Jennie as she went out the door.

"That's good," Jennie said, "I'm enjoying having you all to myself."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung was just finishing the breakfast dishes when Jisoo came up and gave her a back hug.

"Chaeyoung," she said, "I've got an idea. Let's just put together cheese and meat trays for lunch and go for a walk."

Chaeyoung started thinking out loud as she dried the last of pan from breakfast. "We've got plenty of meat and cheese. We've just barely got enough bread. We could cut up some mangoes to go with the sandwiches. Yeaeh, sandwich trays sounds like a good idea, if..." she paused for emphasis, "if it'd be worth it to you to have to bake bread this afternoon on top of prepping for dinner."

Jisoo had already grabbed a knife and a couple of mangoes and was headed to the prep table. "For a morning off with you on a beautiful day like today? I'd bake a double batch of bread!"

"I think just one batch will do for today," Chaeyoung said with a laugh, "but someday I might hold you to that double batch promise."

"Bring it on!" Jisoo said. "I got an A with honors in bread!"

"That's only because your instructors weren't here to see you slapping the dough around last year," Chaeyoung teased.

The laughter and good-natured banter continued as they finished prepping for lunch - the kitchen at Fire Lodge was almost always a happy place.

"So," Chaeyoung asked as they finished and headed up the stairs, "were you planning a walk through town or a walk in the woods?"

"The woods," Jisoo answered decisively. "We can do a walk in town someday when it's not such beautiful weather."

By this time they reached the lobby and saw that Sunmi was manning the front desk.

"Hey, Sunmi," Chaeyoung called out. "Where are Lisa and Jennie? Jisoo and I were about to go for a walk and I wanted to let them know we're going."

"Oh, they went out for coffee a while ago," Sunmi said.

"They shouldn't be gone much longer," Jisoo said. "We can wait until they get back and still have plenty of time for our walk."

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Sunmi said. "They should be back soon and I've got everything under control here. You should go ahead and go."

Chaeyoung thought for a moment. They probably shouldn't like Sunmi here all by herself, but Jisoo looked so hopeful, and the prospect of a walk in the woods with her girl was so enticing, and Lisa and Jennie should be back soon - surely it wouldn't hurt this once...

"Okay," she said, "if you feel like you're up to it. But I'll have my cell with me and you can call me if you need anything."

Chaeyoung and Jisoo put on their jackets and snowshoes, and Chaeyoung grabbed an emergency pack and made Jisoo put it on. "I don't think we'll need it, but if we do, we'll be glad we've got it."

"Bye Sunmi!" they called out, and headed out the back door into the woods.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sunmi smiled contentedly and looked around the desk. It was still early in the season, but already the others felt confident enough in her to leave her alone in charge of the desk. She straightened the phone on the desk and put the message pad and pen beside it. There hadn't been any phone calls this morning, and she wasn't expecting any, but just in case, she wanted to be ready. She was looking through the calendar, familiarizing herself with the upcoming guests, when she heard the front door open.

"Good morning," she called out. "Welcome to Fire Lodge! I-" she froze mid-word when she saw who it was. "Ji-Hoon! You're not supposed to be here."

"I just wanted to talk to you," he said. "As long as you don't call the police, we shouldn't have any trouble."

"If you don't leave now, I'm calling the police." Her voice trembled a little, but she tried to sound as firm as she could, even if inside she was quaking.

"There's no need for that," he said, walking toward the desk. "I'm just here to talk."

"I've got nothing to say to you," she said.

"Maybe not, but you need to listen to what I've got to say."

"No I don't." She picked up the phone and started dialing, but just that quickly he closed the distance between them, snatched phone out of her hands, and threw it across the room.

"I'm just here to talk," he said. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Just go away, Ji-Hoon! I don't want to talk to you!" She felt tears welling up in her eyes but blinked them back - she'd be damned if she was going to cry in front of him. When he showed no sign of leaving, she put her hand in her pocket and emergency dialed her phone. "You're not supposed to be here, Ji-Hoon. I've got a restraining order. You're not supposed to be within 50 feet of me, and you're never supposed to be at the Fire Lodge." She hoped that her voice was carrying through to the phone and that between that and the GPS on her phone the cops would figure out where they needed to go.

"But I don't hold that against you," he said. "I know you wouldn't have done it if not for the influence of all the dykes around here. They're probably trying to keep us apart so they can turn you gay."

Sunmi shook her head. "It's not like that at all. You don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I don't?" He took a step toward her. "If they're not influencing you, you won't have any problems stepping out that door and going home with me and we can forget this little incident ever happened, go back to how we used to be."

She shook her head. "I can't do that, Ji-Hoon. I'm in charge of the lodge until the Lisa-Sunbae gets back... And even if I could, I don't want to. Now, you need to leave."

"Or what?" He took another step toward her. "You can't call the cops, so that restraining order's just a piece of paper. I tried to be nice and just talk to you, but you wouldn't listen. Why are you making me do this.?" He raised his hand as if to slap her.

From behind Ji-Hoon, Sunmi heard the front door open and someone walk in. "All right," an authoritative voice said, "now raise your other hand, and then put them both behind your head."

Before the stunned Ji-Hoon had a chance to do anything, the officer had clamped the handcuffs on one of his wrists, wrenched both of his arms behind him, and then put on the other cuff. "I'll just go put him in the car, then I'll be back to take your statement," the officer said to Sunmi.

While the officer was taking Ji-Hoon out to the car - amid a flurry of protestations of his innocence and the officer's mistaken-ness - Sumni crossed the room and picked up the phone from where it had landed against the far wall. Fortunately it wasn't broken, so she hung it up and waited for the officer to return, which was just a matter of a couple of minutes. He read over her restraining order, made some notes in his notebook, then handed her his business card. "I'm Officer Kim Hansol," he said. "My direct number's on there in case you ever need anything."

"Thank you Officer Kim," she said, receiving the business card with a bow.

"Just call me Hansol," he said, smiling. "And I mean it - if you need me, call me." Bidding her good-bye, he left the lodge and drove off.

A few minutes later, Lisa and Jennie returned.

"As we were walking home, I saw a police car coming up the street from this direction," Jennie said. "That didn't have anything to do with us, did it?"

Sunmi blushed. "Ji-Hoon came by. I had to call the police on him."

Jennie led Sunmi to a couch and had her recound the whole incident. Upon hearing that Chaeyoung and Jisoo had gone out and left Sunmi alone, Jennie called Lisa over. "New rule," she said, "no one leaves Sunmi alone here. In fact, no one leaves anyone alone here." She turned back to Sunmi. "You got lucky this time, but we can't rely on luck to keep you safe. This could have very easily ended badly."

Sunmi nodded, once again blinking back tears.


	17. Chapter 17

Chaeyoung and Jisoo came in from their walk to see Jennie and Sunmi sitting on the couch, with Sunmi apparently near tears.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here," Chaeyoung said, "and guess that something happened while we were out."

Sunmi nodded. "Ji-Hoon came back. He was trying to get me to leave with him." She shuddered. "He doesn't like you - he thinks you all turned me against him. He threw the phone. He almost hit me. If Hansol hadn't gotten here when he did..."

"Hansol?" Jisoo looked enquiringly at the others.

"Kim Hansol," Jennie said. "He grew up here in the valley. He probably could have gotten out if he'd wanted to, but instead he joined the local police. He's kind of odd, but he's a good cop. I'd feel safe if Hansol had declared himself my guardian angel."

Sunmi looked at Jennie. "I never met him - he must have been a few years behind me in school. You said he was kind of odd. Kind of odd how?"

Jennie shrugged. "No one was really sure what to make of him. All the girls thought he was gay because he never had a girlfriend, while all the guys thought he was straight because he never had a boyfriend. No one ever really figured him out. But he's a really good guy - he always stood up for anyone who needed it."

Sunmi nodded. "He walked in and had JI-Hoon handcuffed and under control in just a few seconds. He must be really good at what he does."

"Anyway," Jennie said, returning her attention to Chaeyoung and Jisoo, "I know you didn't have any way of knowing this was going to happen, but from now on no one gets left here alone.

Chaeyoung nodded. "You got it."

Jisoo leaned down and hugged Sunmi. "I'm just glad you're okay."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The lunch dishes had been cleaned up, the bread was in the oven, and it wasn't time to start cooking dinner yet. Chaeyoung and Jisoo were sitting on stools in the kitchen, enjoying a rare bit of downtime together.

"That's really scary," Jisoo said, "what almost happened to Sunmi this morning."

Chaeyoung nodded. "We should have figured that something like that would happen. Ji-Hoon was probably watching the place, just waiting for Sunmi to be alone."

Jisoo rubbed Chaeyoung's shoulders, trying to work out some of the tension she was feeling. "You can't know everything. Thing's will happen sometimes that we never expected and we just have to think on our feet and handle them as best we can."

"I know," Chaeyoung said, sighing deeply. "I can only imagine what Jennie's going through right now. Sunmi's not technically my responsibility, but she is Jennie's. Jennie's got to be beating herself up over this."

Jisoo got up and stood in front of Chaeyoung, wrapping her arms around her. "And Jennie's got Lisa to help her get through this, and I'm here to help you get through this."

Chaeyoung just melted, leaning into Jisoo's comforting embrace. "Even if I'm not her boss, I'm still her sunbae."

Jisoo rested her chin on the top of Chaeyoung's head. "And you're doing everything a good sunbae could be expected to do. We're all going to see to it the Ji-Hoon never gets another opportunity like he had today."

Just then the phone rang. Jisoo leaned over and answered it on speakerphone. "Fire Lodge Kitchen. What's your pleasure?"

Jennie's voice came out of the phone. "If you're at a point where the baking can be left alone for a few minutes, my pleasure is to have you both come to the lobby for an all-hands staff meeting."

"You got it, boss-lady," Jisoo responded.

Jennie laughed. "Chaeyoung's being a bad influence on you."

"Hey!" Chaeyoung broke in. "I resemble that statement."

"I thought you might,' Jennie said. "Anyway, are you able to leave the baking right now?"

Chaeyoung looked at the clock. "So long as this meeting doesn't run over half an hour."

"It won't," Jennie said. "So get yourselves on up here."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^  
Tzuyu and A-Yeon were just finishing a morning's skiing and starting to think about lunch.

"It's funny," A-Yeon was saying, "I live here year-round, but this is my first time going skiing in a couple of years."

"Really?" Tzuyu replied, taking off her goggles. "I can't imagine that. If I lived here, I'd go skiing every chance I got."

A-Yeon shook her head. "You'd think so, but then when you're here all the time, instead of just one weekend a year, skiing has to compete with all the other things going on in your life and you just never seem to have time for it."

Tzuyu stopped short. A-Yeon spun around to face her. 

"I see what you're doing here," Tzuyu said. "This is a not terribly subtle way of telling me not to move here, isn't it?"

A-Yeon nodded. "I'd hate for you to give up your life in Seoul, move out here to be with me, and then for some reason we don't work out. On the other hand..."

Tzuyu's eyes narrowed. "On the other hand what?"

A-Yeon looked up at Tzuyu and smiled. "It's all possible I might be worrying about nothing. And besides, when it's all said and done, it's your choice, not mine."

Tzuyu stepped forward and wrapped A-Yeon in a hug. "I think you understand what's happening here better than you think," she said.

They checked their skis and poles, then went into one of the nearby restaurants. Once they'd been provided with hot cocoa, breadsticks, and menus, Tzuyu went on with what she was saying. "We started Twice right out of school. I've never worked anywhere else. I've never lived with someone who wasn't part of that group of friends. As many places as I've traveled, I feel like the part of the world I've seen is very small, because I saw it all with the same people, plus customers. I think it's time for me to do something a little bit crazy, maybe even a little bit irresponsible."

"Like I said, it's your choice. I just wanted to be sure you were aware of all the possibilities." A-Yeon started to open her menu, then stopped and put it down again. "And just in case your thoughts were trending that way, you won't be moving up here to move in with me or to work at the bar. That's too much pressure on a young relationship and it doesn't sound like what you want anyway."

Tzuyu nodded. "I've got an idea of where I can probably rent a room. And I've saved most of what I made working at Twice, so I'll have time to look around for a job, or maybe even decide to go into business for myself."

"Now that I'd be interested to see," A-Yeon said, finally opening her menu. "What kind of business do you think you might open?"

Tzuyu shrugged and opened her menu. "I don't know yet. I'll have to look around, see what people here need."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Once Chaeyoung and Jisoo came up from the basement, the entire staff was gathered in the lobby.

"OK," Jennie said. "Let's get started." She walked around behind the front desk and stood on a fruit crate she kept back there, so she was at least as tall as everyone else. "In light of recent events, we're going to be putting into place some safety precautions here at the Lodge."

"Like what?" Lisa asked.

"For starters, I'm having a locksmith come out this afternoon to convert the front door to an electronic lock. The door will automatically lock itself at dark. Every staff member will have an access code, every guest will get a temporary access code, to be deactivated when they check out." 

Everyone nodded.

"Secondly," Jennie reached under the counter and pulled out a bag. She reached into it and started pulling out radios. "I checked and we've got enough GMRS radios for everyone to carry one. I can only require you to carry it when you're on duty, but I'd love it if you carried it all the time."

Everyone picked up a radio and clipped it to their clothes. 

"Keep the radio on channel 21 and the power on 'auto-notify'," Jennie said, "and be sure to charge it when you go to sleep."

Chaeyoung said "These don't always reach down into the kitchen very well."

Jennie nodded. "I know. This is just a stopgap. I've ordered some more powerful radios and they should be here in a week or so. Until then, hopefully the messages will get through when we need them to."

"And finally," Jennie said, "if you reach right under the center of the front desk where I'm standing, there's a taser velcro'ed to the underside of the desk." She brought up the taser where they could see it - it looked exceedingly large in her small hands. She deliberately pressed the button, and the air was rent with the sound of electric sparks jumping between the contacts. "If someone threatens you, this will drop them where they stand. Officer Kim helped me pick it out - it's the most powerful allowed by law, so you don't have to worry about reaching skin - it'll shock someone right through a ski suit."

Jennie focused her attention on each member of her staff in turn. "I can't keep you safe. All I can do is give you the tools to keep yourself and each other safe. Now it's up to you to do your part." She stepped down from the crate, signalling that the meeting was over.


	18. Chapter 18

It was Monday morning and the guests were checking out. Mina, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung had taken care of their checkout paperwork before breakfast. Jihyo had waited until right after breakfast. But Tzuyu waited until the very last minute, while the others were putting their bags in the van, to approach Jennie at the front desk. Jennie noticed that Tzuyu seemed to be nervous about something, but chalked it up to the fact that she was about to have to spend several hours in a car with her ex-girlfriend. Then, while Jennie was running her credit card, Tzuyu slid a paper across the desk. Jennie picked it up, unfolded it, and saw that a number was written inside.

"What's this?" she asked, perplexed.

"That's how much I'd be willing to pay - per week - to rent one of your unused staff bedrooms, including meals and laundry privileges." Tzuyu looked around, hoping none of the other members of Twice had heard this conversation - if Jennie said yes, they'd find out about it soon enough, and if Jennie said no, they never needed to know.

Jennie mentally ran the numbers in her head. The amount Tzuyu was suggesting was a little bit less than what she could get if she put the room out of rent on the open market. But the fact was she wasn't willing to put the room out on the open market - not yet, at any rate - and the extra money would definitely help keep the Lodge afloat.

"That sounds fair. Did you want to move in right now or..."

"I've got to go back to Seoul to wrap up my affairs there, so . . . about a week?" As she was talking, Tzuyu pulled her checkbook out of her purse, wrote out a check, and handed it to Jennie. "There's one week's rent as a deposit."

Jennie slipped the check into her pocket and smiled at Tzuyu. "It's going to be nice having you around for more than one weekend a year. I mean, I'm sorry about you and Jihyo, but. . . oh, you know." Jennie knew what she wanted to say, but she wasn't sure exactly how to say it.

Tzuyu laughed lightly at Jennie's discomfiture. "I do know. It took losing Jihyo to see what I'd been missing. So while it's not something I would have chosen before, I think it's working out for the best."

Jennie smiled knowingly. "And I'm sure meeting A-Yeon right after didn't hurt, either."

"Wait - how did you?" A look of comprehension suddenly dawned on Tzuyu's face. "Small town, everyone knows everything."

Jennie nodded. "Pretty much."

Tzuyu laughed. "That's going to take some getting used to."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung and Jisoo were walking back from Pentagon, the hot new restaurant in the valley. Well, people said was new - it had actually been around a couple of years but had only just recently started getting the recognition it deserved. They had had the tasting menu, then afterward Chef E'Dawn had invited them into the back so he could show off his kitchen. As they walked home from their culinary adventure, a thoughtful look came over Jisoo's face.

"If for some reason you weren't working at Fire Lodge, do you think you'd ever want to open someplace like Pentagon?"

"Here in the valley?" Chaeyoung asked. Upon receiving Jisoo's confirmatory nod, she responsed. "Hell no. I don't want to work that hard." Seeing how confused Jisoo looked, she elaborated. "If you open a restaurant in Seoul, your main competition is cooking at home, which most people either can't or else don't want to. Here in the valley, most of your customers will be tourists, since most of the locals are working service industry jobs and so don't have time to go out for dinner. So you've got your tourists who've just come in from a day of skiing. They've showered and gotten into their lounging-around clothes. Your competition is the restaurant in their lodge. But you've got to be not just better that that restaurant. You've got to be so much better that they'll decide it's worth getting bundled up again and going out in the cold again to eat at your restaurant. You've got to be at the very top of your game Every Single Night." She shuddered at the thought.

"I'd never thought of it that way," Jisoo said. "I just thought having good food would be enough."

Chaeyoung shook her head. "If good food was enough, most restaurants wouldn't close within their first 3 years. I've worked at half a dozen different restaurants that shut down, and every one of them had great food."

By this time they were back at Fire Lodge. On walking in, they saw Jennie, Lisa, and Sunmi clustered around the front desk.

"What's going on?" Chaeyoung asked. "Don't tell me Ji-Hoon came back again."

"Oh no, no sign of him," Sunmi responded.

"No, I was sharing some good news," Jennie said. "The Lodge has a new full-time resident: Tzuyu is moving to the valley and is going to be renting one of the staff bedrooms. She's paying for meals and laundry privileges, so you'll need to factor her into the grocery lists."

"We've never had a resident at the Lodge," Chaeyoung said. "This is going to be a new experience."

Jennie nodded. "I know. I wasn't sure about it, but the money she offered was just too good, and anyway, Tzuyu's no bother."

Chaeyoung drew Jennie aside as Sunmi, Lisa, and Jisoo began chatting about what they were going to do with their days off.

"Jennie, level with me," Chaeyoung said quietly. "Are things really that bad? Do I need to start doing a dinner service for outside tourists to try to bring in some extra money? Should we open the bar to non-guests?"

Jennie shook her head. "It's not that bad. This just gives us a little bit of a cushion and besides, it's not like it's some random stranger living here, it's Tzuyu."

Chaeyoung nodded. "Okay. But you've got to promise to let me know if things ever do get that bad."

"I will, but we're nowhere near that yet. Right now I think you've got quite enough on your plate keeping our guests and staff fed."

"Well, I'm just letting you know that I can do more if you need me to."

Chaeyoung stepped forward and gave Jennie a comforting hug. When she let go of her, Jennie said "That really means a lot. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go check some things in the mud room." Chaeyoung noticed but never mentioned that Jennie's voice seemed a little choked up right then, or that when she Jennie again later that afternoon, her eyes were a little red.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

After dinner, Sunmi managed to take Jisoo aside to talk in private for a minute. She handed Jisoo some money and a slip of paper, saying "Can you get this for me when you're in town? I don't even want to think about what this would cost in the valley."

"Sure," Jisoo said. She looked down at the note; her face got very serious and she tucked the note and money into her pocket. "Sure," she repeated, her voice a little quieter. "And don't worry - I won't tell anyone."

"I didn't think you would," Sunmi said. "Besides, it won't matter for long anyway. Unless I'm wrong - and I hope I'm wrong - everyone will know soon enough anyway."


	19. Chapter 19

After Chaeyoung and Jisoo had left to go to town, Jennie made sure that Lisa and Sunmi had gotten started on their duties for the day, then retreated to her room. She pulled a chair so she could sit in it and look out the window, then wrapped a blanket around herself and sat down. She looked out over the valley, thinking of all the things that were her responsibility. She'd expected that someday she'd end up running the lodge, but she'd never expected that it would happen when she was this young. She'd also expected to take over because her parents had retired, not because they'd died. Times like this she could really use a comforting hug from her dad, or some good advice from her mom, but instead she was left alone to manage everything. She looked out the window, watching the trees sway in the breeze, and didn't even notice when tears started rolling down her face.

She didn't know how long she sat there, but it must have been a couple of hours, because the next thing she knew, Lisa had found her and was leaning over the arm of the chair to give her a hug.

"What was that, Lise? My mind was a million miles away." She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I was saying," Lisa said, "that you should come down to the kitchen because Sunmi and I are making ramen for lunch. Then I started telling you that there's no need for you to sit here and cry by yourself, that I'm always here for you, and then I gave you a hug and you came back to earth. So what's going on?"

Jennie managed a weak smile. "I'm just really missing my parents this morning. I never expected to have to run the lodge all by myself."

Lisa knelt in front of the chair, clasped Jennie's hands, and looked up at her. "You don't have to run the lodge all by yourself. I'm here with you. We're a team, just like your parents were."

Jennie sniffled again. "Thanks, Lise. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Well," Lisa said, standing up and then pulling Jennie to her feet, "if this morning's any indication, you'd get locked up inside your head and forget to come out for lunch. So let's not let that happen again, okay?"

Jennie nodded. They stopped for her to wash her face, then headed down to the kitchen to help Sunmi with lunch.

Late that afternoon, Chaeyoung and Jisoo got back from shopping. As they brought all the groceries into the kitchen, Chaeyoung showed Jennie a giant jar of kim chi that she'd gotten on sale. "I'm trying to stock up," she was saying, "so that if weather keeps us from going to the store one week, at least we won't starve."

Jennie agreed that this was a good idea, and she and Lisa got so involved with planning their emergency food supplies with Chaeyoung that no one noticed Jisoo handing Sunmi a small package or Sunmi disappearing up the stairs with it. After a few minutes, though, their planning session was discussed by Sunmi loudly saying "Everyone, can I have your attention for a minute, please? I've got an announcement to make."

Once she had everyone's attention, Sunmi began: "This would have become obvious soon anyway, but I wanted to go ahead and tell you all." She pulled her hand from behind her back, revealing that she was holding something small, white, and plastic. A smile spread over her face as she yelled "I'm pregnant!"

Everyone crowded around Sunmi, congratulating her. Jisoo announced - and no one saw fit to contradict her - that this was a situation that called for baking a cake. As Jisoo and Chaeyoung got started baking, Lisa and Jennie shepherded Sunmi out of the kitchen, with Lisa already diving in to the logistics of having a pregnant employee. "If there's something you can't do, just tell me," Lisa said, "and if you let us know when your doctor's appointments are, we'll be sure you've got the time off, and we'll try to be available to give you a ride. Jennie followed them, her smile threatening to falter as she thought about something that Sunmi must already be far too aware of - the baby's father.

That evening after dinner, cake, and cocoa, Jennie finally had a chance to talk to Sunmi alone. "I know we've all said this to you so many times this evening but. . . congratulations." Sunmi returned Jennie's smile and she thanked her for the good wishes.

Jennie continued on, her face growing serious. "I'm sure you've already thought about this - and feel free to tell me it's none of my business - but what about the baby's father?"

Sunmi nodded. "I've been waiting for someone to ask about that. It's Ji-Hoon - there's no way it can be anyone else. I've got an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow. If I have anything to say about it, Ji-Hoon is never going to see this baby."

Jennie nodded. "I know you didn't ask for my input here, and that it's really not my business, but I think that's absolutely the right thing to do."

Sunmi hugged Jennie. "I trust your judgement," she said, "so it means a lot to me that you agree. Also, I know you didn't ask for this, but you and the staff of the lodge are the closest thing I've got to friends and family right now."

Jennie smiled up at her. "Then we'll try to be a good family to you."

The moon was full, so Jisoo and Chaeyoung decided to go for a little walk. They told Lisa where they were going and when they'd be back, then they put their coats on, strapped on their snowshoes, and went walking around the fields behind the lodge.

"You know what I think is really amazing?" Jisoo asked after they'd walked for a while.

"With you, I never know," Chaeyoung responded with a laugh.

"And that's actually it - that we've been together almost a year now and we're still learning things about each other."

Chaeyoung stopped and looked thoughtfully up at the stars. "That sounds like the lead-in to a question. What are you wanting to learn about me right now?"

Jisoo laughed. "And sometime we know each other so well. Yes, there was something I wanted to ask: What about kids? Have you thought about kids? Do you want to have kids? Do you want to have kids with me? And if so, who'd be the one to actually get pregnant? And who'd be the father?"

Jisoo's stream of questions was cut off by Chaeyoung's laughter. "Let me get some answers out before you drown me in questions!" she said. "I like kids, and as I'm sure you can imagine, I haven't thought about much else since Sunmi's announcement today. I'd like to have kids someday, but not yet. Not for a couple more years, until I feel more stable in life. I can't imagine anyone I'd want to have kids with other than you, but I think I'd have to be the one to get pregnant - I just can't picture you waddling around with your belly out to here. As for the father. . . I think it's really too soon to be thinking about that yet. I can't see myself just selecting an anonymous donor from a sperm bank, so I guess I'd have to ask one of my guy friends, but I don't know who. Did I answer all your questions?"

Jisoo nodded. "I think so." She leaned in and hugged Chaeyoung. "I think you're gonna be a great mother."


	20. Chapter 20

"That was a delicious cake," Lisa said, sliding under the duvet and waiting for Jennie to come to bed.

Jennie was pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed. "It was. It really was."

Lisa looked at her. "You're worried about Sunmi, aren't you? Don't worry - I am too. But we'll take care of her."

"That's part of it," Jennie said, climbing over the footboard and sitting on the end of the bed. "It's also that she got me thinking about kids."

"What about kids?" Lisa asked, sitting up.

Jennie clasped her hands together and closed her eyes for a second. "It's just brought home to me, if we're going to be together, we're going to have to deal with all those sorts of life things."

Lisa smiled, nodding excitedly. "It's going to be great!"

Jennie looked at her, confused. "How can you say that? What if you want kids and I don't? What if I want kids and you don't? How many kids should we have? When should we have them? How should we have them?"

Lisa crawled down the bed and gave Lisa a hug. "And we get to decide all those things together, and we don't have to decide them tonight. . ."

Jennie looked into Lisa's eyes. "What if something happens to one of us before we decide?"

Lisa pulled Jennie in close and began stroking her hair. "This is about your parents, isn't it?"

Jennie nodded and sniffled a bit, trying to hold back her tears.

Lisa leaned down and kissed Jennie on top of the head. "We can't tell what will happen. We just have to do the best we can each day."

"But," Jennie protested, pulling away, "remember when you broke your leg last year? What if you had broken your neck? You could have died!"

"But I didn't die. Tell me something: How many guests of Fire Lodge have died, in all the years it's been open?"

Jennie thought for a moment. "None, unless it happened when I was very small."

Lisa reached out and grabbed Jennie's arm. "What happened to your parents was a tragedy, and I don't want you to think I'm trying to downplay that, but most people don't die in horrible accidents. We just have to trust that we'll have time to do the things we want to do."

Jennie leaned into Lisa and went limp, wrung out by all the emotions she was feeling. "If we do have kids," she said, "I want to have more than one. As fun as it was growing up at the lodge, it would have been a lot more fun if I hadn't been an only child."

Lisa nodded. "That makes sense. But at any rate, we don't have to decide tonight, and we've got to get up early tomorrow - I've got to work on getting the lodge ready for this weekend's guests, and you promised Sunmi you'd go with her to meet with the lawyer."

Jennie nodded, then yawned. "You're right." She crawled under the duvet, then held the edge up for Lisa to climb in after her. Lisa reached over to turn off the light, then turned back and wrapped her arms around Jennie. In just a few minutes Jennie was asleep, snoring quietly. Lisa lay awake quite a while longer, staring into the dark, worrying about what the future might hold. She didn't know what she'd do if something happened to Jennie

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung looked up from the bread she was kneading and saw Jennie coming into the kitchen.

"Hey boss-lady," she said. "How'd everything go with the Sunmi and the lawyer?"

"I think it went well," Jennie said. "He's drawing up some papers for Ji-Hoon to sign, waiving his parental rights in exchange for Sunmi not seeking child support. Sunmi's at her parents' house right now, telling them the news."

Chaeyoung nodded. "Hopefully some good news will help smooth over things with them."

"Hopefully so," Jennie agreed. "You need anything down here?"

Chaeyoung shook her head. "I'm good. I've just got to put this bread in the oven and then it'll be lunch time."

"Sounds good," Jennie said. "I'm going to go find Lisa and see how her morning went."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa was in the laundry room, putting sheets in the dryer and towels in the washer, when Jennie found her and caught her up in a back hug.

"Hey Sweetie!" Jennie said, going up on tiptoes to kiss Lisa on the back of the neck.

Lisa spun around in Jennie's arms and kissed her on the lips. "So good to have you back. I've been thinking about you all morning."

"Mmmmmm, that's what I like to hear," Jennie said, stretching up to kiss Lisa. "Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

Lisa thought for a second. "Not unless you consider Jisoo getting startled by a squirrel exciting."

Jennie shook her head. "No, but I bet it was funny!"

Lisa started laughing. "It really was. She was out on the back deck having some coffee, then the squirrel ran up behind her and she screamed and sent coffee flying everywhere."

"I wish I could have seen that," Jennie said, laughing. "It certainly sounds more fun than going to see the lawyer this morning."

"How'd that go?"

Jennie told Lisa about the papers the lawyer was drawing up. "So long as Ji-Hoon signs those papers, everything's okay."

"So wait a second," Lisa said, scowling. "You're telling me that everything will be OK as long as Ji-Hoon is reasonable?"

Jennie nodded.

"So we're doomed!" Lisa said, throwing up her hands. "He's going to refuse to sign the papers just to spite Sunmi. It doesn't matter what they are or what they say - he'll refuse to sign them just to get back at her."

Jennie reached up and stroked the side of Jennie's face, trying to calm her down. "The lawyer already considered that probability. If that's the case, they can go before a judge and try to get him out of the picture against his will. But in order for them to be able to do that, they have to give him a chance to sign voluntarily first."

Lisa shook her head. "Hopefully the threat of child support hanging over his head will be enough to get him to see reason. Not that Sunmi couldn't use the money. . ."

"No amount of money is worth having to deal with Ji-Hoon for the next 18 years. Now, let's go upstairs - lunch should be ready by now."

Lisa started the washer and dryer, then followed Jennie up the stairs. "Every day's an adventure at Fire Lodge," she said quietly. If Jennie heard her, she gave no sign of it.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sunmi's parents had been surprised to see her. They were surprised but pleased to learn they were going to be grandparents. After lunch, Sunmi left to take the bus back to the lodge - her parents didn't offer to drive her, and she didn't ask. She was standing at the bus stop, her hands in her pockets, dancing in place to keep warm, when she saw a police car heading up the street. She cringed when the driver made a U-turn in the middle of the block and came back to park in front of her. Even though she knew she hadn't done anything wrong, Sumni's mouth went dry when the driver's door opened. The officer got out of the car and turned to face her - it was Officer Kim!

"Hansol!" she said, relief evident in her tone of voice. "I'm so glad it's you - I didn't know what was going on!"

"Sorry to have frightened you," he said. "I saw you huddled under the bus stop and figured you could probably use a ride back to the lodge."

"Oh, I couldn't ask that. . . " she began.

"You don't have to ask," he said. "I'm offering. I'm heading toward that side of town anyway, and I'd much rather have some company that go alone."

By this time he had walked around the car and opened the passenger door.

"Well, when you put it that way, how could I possibly refuse?" He made sure she was safely inside the car, then went around and climbed back in.

"Let me get this," he said, reaching over and turning down the volume on the police radio. He started the care again and swung it around, heading toward Fire Lodge.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you for your help the other night," Sunmi said quietly.

"No thanks necessary," he said, blushing, "just doing my job."

"Still," she said, "things would have been a lot worse for me if you hadn't been there."

"Then I'm glad I was there," he responded.

They drove on in silence for a while, until as they neared the lodge, he said "I hope you won't think this is inappropriate, but would you like to go out sometime? Maybe go dancing?"

"I love to dance," she said. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well," he said, "my next night off is Thursday. I know of a club near Fire Lodge that has a great DJ on Thursday nights. We could go dance for a while and I could have you back to the lodge before you turn into a pumpkin - I know I've got to get up early the next morning, and I imagine you do too."

She nodded. "I do. But as long as we're not out too late, that sounds great." She looked down, the looked up at him through her eyelashes, suddenly shy.

They pulled up in front of the lodge, and he came around to help her out of the car. As Sunmi was punching in the security code for the door, Jennie saw them from across the lobby and came over.

"Hansol! I wasn't expecting to see you here today. Is everything okay?"

He nodded. "I was headed over to this part of town to investigage some snowmobile thefts at some of the other lodges - you haven't had anything like that, have you?"

Jennie shook her head. "My parents never believed in snowmobiles, and I'd rather not have them around."

"I can understand that. Anyway, I was headed this way and saw Sunmi waiting at a bus stop and thought I'd be glad for the company on the drive over."

Jennie looked at Sunmi, who still hadn't said anything since getting out of the car, and on a hunch, asked "Would you like to come inside for lunch, Hansol?" Jennie noticed that Sunmi looked at Hansol, eagerly awaiting his answer.

"I'd love to," he said, addressing himself both to Jennie and Sunmi, "but I've really got to get going on this investigation." He reached into his pocket, took out a business card, and handed it to Jennie. "Would you put that by your phone and ask your staff to call me if they see anyone doing anything suspicious on a snowmobile?"

Jennie nodded. "Sure. I doubt we'll see anything, but if we do, we'll be sure to call."

"Thank you. Well, I've got to go now. It was nice talking to you. Sunmi, I'll see you Thursday. Eight o'clock okay?"

She nodded. "Sure! I'll be ready."

Jennie looked from Sunmi to Hansol and back again, a sudden look of comprehension dawning on her face.


	21. Chapter 21

Sunmi paced nervously in the lodge's lobby, her heels clicking on the hardwood floors. Noticing that Jisoo had walked into the room, she turned to her. "How do I look? Do I need to change anything?"

Jisoo looked Sunmi up and down. She was weaing a little black dress with matching heels. Her hair and makeup looked fine. "No, you look great. Why are you so nervous?"

Sunmi hugged herself and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. "I've been with Ji-Hoon since high school. This is my first first date in years."

Jisoo stepped up and patted Sunmi on the shoulder. "It's going to be fine."

Just then there was a knock at the door. Jisoo rushed over and looked out the little windows beside the door, then opened the door. "Hansol, come in!"

Hansol came inside. Sunmi looked over at him. He was wearing black pants and a dark grey shirt.

"You look nice," Sunmi said. "I think this is the first time I've ever seen you out of uniform."

Hansol laughed. "I stay so busy, I rarely get to go anywhere out of uniform. Are you ready?" He held out his hand.

Sunmi nodded and took his hand. "See you later, Jisoo!"

"Bye!" Jisoo responded.

"Don't worry," Hansol said, "I'll get her back safely."

"You'd better!" Jisoo looked more serious than Sunmi had ever seen her before.

As they walked out into the parking lot, Hansol gestured toward a blue Fiat. "You also get to see what I drive when I'm not in my squad car."

Sunmi laughed. "I would have picked you for more of the pickup truck type."

"I did have a truck," Hansol said as he helped Sunmi into the car, "but I drove one of these on an undercover case and it was so fun that I sold my truck and bought this."

The short drive to the club was pleasant - the two chatted lightly, flitting from one topic to another as if they'd known each other for years. The club was one Sunmi had driven past before but never been to.

"Isn't it odd," Sunmi said, "how even though this is such a small town, there can still be places you've never gone?"

Hansol nodded. "We get caught up in our usual habits and don't notice all the other possibilities."

Sunmi thought that summed up a lot of things - she'd been with Ji-Hoon for so long that she'd never really discovered who she was as an adult. The possibilities seemed limitless.

They went inside and checked their coats. The club was a cavernous space, with tables and booths around the edges and the dance floor in the middle. The bar was against one side wall and the DJ's booth against the other. They decided to get a table and watch the dancing a little bit first, get a feel for the place before they hit the dance floor. They had barely sat down when a waitress come up to take their order.

"I'll have a beer," Hansol said, "and the lady will have . . ." He paused for Sunmi to fill in her preference.

"A Sprite, please."

As the waitress turned at left, Hansol quirked an eyebrow at Sunmi. "Sprite? I would have picked you for more of the white wine spritzer type."

Sunmi laughed. "Normally I would be. But a couple of days ago I found out I was pregnant."

"Oh, ummm," Hansol was given an extra moment to think of how to respond by the waitress dropping off their drinks. "Congratulations!?" rarely had that word been uttered with so much trepidation and uncertainty.

Sunmi smiled at him and laid her hand on top of his. "It is a cause for congratulations." She smiled at him. "I've got a lawyer at work seeing to it that Ji-Hoon stays away from me and the baby permanently, and I'm going to save as much as I can from what I make at the lodge so that the baby and I can make a fresh start in the spring."

"Sounds like you've got everything figured out," Hansol said nervously.

Sunmi shook her head. "Not everything. Not yet. Just the broad strokes. I'll fill in the details over the course of the winter."

"So are you planning on a new start here in the valley, or are you moving away?"

Sunmi shook her head. "Believe it or not, that's one of the details I haven't filled in. At the beginning of the winter I'd have said 'go,' with no hesitation, but I keep finding more reasons to stay." She blushed and pulled back her hand.

They eat took a sip of their drink, stealing a moment to regain their composure.

"Well," Hansol said, "wherever you end up, I'm sure you'll do fine."

Sunmi laughed. "How can you say that? You've only known me a couple of weeks!"

Hansol put down his beer. "It's part of my job - learn how to get a feeling for people quickly."

Sunmi toyed with the rim of her glass. "And what do your feelings tell you about me?"

Hansol blushed. "Oh no, I can't tell you that."

Sunmi leaned toward him, smiling. "Now you've got to tell me. You can't just drop a bomb like that and not say anything!"

Hansol took a sip of his beer to buy himself time to think. "Okay," he said "but, remember: You asked for this. You're clever, and resourceful, and stronger than anyone gives you credit for - including yourself. You're fundamentally a good person, and you'd be a good friend or - apparently - a good mother."

Sunmi blushed and shook her head. "That's flattering, but oh so wrong. I'm just stupid and careless and ordinary."

Hansol smiled cryptically. "We'll see. I have a knack for being right about things like this. Anyway, are you ready to dance?"

Sunmi nodded. "Sure."

Hansol took Sunmi's hand and led her onto the dance floor.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jennie, Lisa, Chaeyoung, and Jisoo were putting away the tiles after a game of mahjongg when Sunmi and Hansol came in the front door.

"I had a great time," she said.

"Me too," he said. "Maybe we can do this again sometime."

"I'd like that," she said smiling.

After a moment's awkwardness, they settled on a hug as the appropriate end to the night. When she let go of him, he said "See you around" and headed for the door.

As he drove home, he thought about the evening. It had been a long time since he'd been out on a date and he'd really enjoyed himself with Sunmi. She was a great dancer. Not in a conventional way, but that movements that would look awkward on someone else looked natural and fluid on her. Plus, from time to time she'd turn on that million watt smile and he'd just melt.

"She's a siren," he said to himself, glad there was no one around to hear him. Unfortunately, he knew it couldn't last - soon he'd have to come out to her, and that'd be the end of whatever they had. She'd want to be just friends, then gradually fade out of his life. It had happened before, and he was sure it would happen again.

"But you can't give up. You've got to keep trying," he told himself. He knew from the online support group that he belonged to that some asexuals were able to find loving relationships, but he also knew how strongly the odds were against him.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: The actual Kim Hansol is both asexual and aromantic. My fictional version here is asexual but not aromantic, just because I think that gives more options of how to use him in the story.**


	22. Chapter 22

Jisoo slid the loaves of bread into the oven and looked around the kitchen. Chaeyoung was sick today, so Jisoo was flying solo in the kitchen much earlier than she'd expected. Wiping the flour off her hands she looked around and took a mental inventory of what was left to do. The meat and cheese tray was done, the bread was in the oven, now all she had to do was prep the fruit tray and that was lunch taken care of. They weren't even sure that the weekend's guests would arrive by lunch, but it would be better to have a lunch and no guests than guests and no lunch. She took a couple of melons out of the fridge and started peeling them. As she removed the seeds and started cutting the melons into chunks, she heard a "whoosh" and noticed that one side of her face felt warmer than the other. Looking toward the oven, she saw flames leaping out of the top of the stove, licking the ceiling. The fire alarm started shrieving, adding to the chaos. Jisoo yelled for Chaeyoung - then remembered that Chaeyoung was upstairs, sick in bed. Realizing she would have to handle this herself, she remembered her training in kitchen safety. She grabbed the fire extinguisher, pulled the pin, and sprayed the fire, sweeping from side to side until the whole thing was out. Then, she watched in horror as the flames reappeared again. She started to spray them again, but the extinguisher sputtered - empty! She started to panic, then her training kicked in again.

"What's causing the fire? What can be done to stop it?" she asked herself. After a moment's thought, she realized that the only way she could have a fire like this, that came back after she put it out, was if there was a hole in the gas line and the pilot light was relighting the gas. Shutting off the gas would take care of the fire - but reaching the shutoff valve on the stove wasn't an option, and she couldn't remember where the main shutoff valve was.

"Think, Jisoo. Everyone's counting on you. You know Chaeyoung showed you where the main shutoff valve was." She thought back to her orientation to the kitchen the previous year. She could remember Chaeyoung saying "You'll never need it, but there's the main gas shutoff valve for the lodge." But where were they?

Suddenly she snapped her fingers. "We were in the pantry!" Her eyes were starting to sting from the accumulation of smoke, and she started coughing. Quickly, she rushed to the pantry. She checked all the walls - nothing. She started moving things away from the walls. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Finally, behind a bag of potatoes she found a bright red valve. Grabbing hold of it, she quickly turned it to off.

"Let's hope that did it," she said. She stuck her head out of the pantry and looked toward the stove. No fire! She'd done it!

She took the fire alarm off the wall and popped out the battery to stop the shrieking. The sudden silence seemed unreal, until it was suddenly broken by the sound of the stairwell door opening and someone shouting "Jisoo! Are you okay? Jisoo!" as they ran down the stairs.

Jisoo turned just as Jennie reached the bottom of the stairs. "There you are!" Jennie yelled. "We've evacuated the lodge, and the fire department is on their way. What are you doing down here?"

"I. . . I shut off the gas valve and the fire went out," Jisoo said, as she was suddenly struck by the enormity of what she'd done and what the consequences would have been if she had failed. She turned aside from Jennie and threw up into the trashcan. Turning back to Jennie, she wiped her mouth on a kitchen towel as she asked "Is everyone else okay?"

"Now they are," Jennie said. "You were the only one who was in any danger. We kept hoping you would come up, then fearing the worst when you didn't, and finally I came down to look for you because it was the only way I could keep Chaeyoung from rushing down here. Speaking of which, we'd better get upstairs before Chaeyoung has kittens worrying about you." Jennie grabbed Jisoo's arm and steadied her as they went up the stairs.

When they came out the front door, the rest of the staff saw them. Chaeyoung rushed over and put her arm and a blanket around Jisoo. Jennie left them to go talk to the firemen who had just arrived.

"Are you okay?" Chaeyoung asked. "What happened? Why didn't you get out?"

"I burned the bread," she said, laughing as she tried to process the experience she'd just been through. "No, there must be a leak in one of the gas lines of the stove. The pilot light set it off. I tried putting it out with the extinguisher, but it lit right back up again. So I shut the gas off at the main valve and the fire went out. Then Jennie came downstairs looking for me."

"But what about you?" Chaeyoung asked, bursting into tears as she wrapped her arms around Jisoo. "When were you going to take care of rescuing yourself?"

Jisoo looked at Chaeyoung. "I never thought about that. I was just focused on putting the fire out so that you and everyone else would be safe."

"But you could have died!" Chaeyoung said. "Jisoo, listen to me. I love you. If something happens to you, I am not safe. Promise me - no seriously, promise me that if you're ever in a situation like that again, you'll evacuate and leave the firefighting to the firefighters."

Jisoo stroked Chayoung's hair as she laughed and cried at the same time. "I can't believe I did that! I stayed in a room with a blazing fire! I didn't panic! I didn't get out! I put out the fire!"

"Yes ma'am, you did, but. . . " Jisoo and Chaeyoung turned as one of the firefighters walked up behind them. "according to the air quality readings my men took when they got down to the kitchen, you were less than 30 seconds away from losing consciousness from lack of oxygen. Now, I'll be honest with you - if you hadn't put down that fire, the whole lodge probably would have burned down by the time we could get here. But I'd rather than any day than having to suit up to go down to the kitchen and recover your corpse. So be proud of what you did today, let your friends throw you a party if they want to, but please don't ever do it again. Next time, please get out, get your people out, and leave the fire to us."

Sobered by his words, Jisoo nodded. He wished her and Chaeyoung a good day, "or as good as you can have in circumstances like these," and turned and went back to rejoin his crew. Jisoo turned to Chaeyoung, pulling the blanket closer around herself. Chaeyoung wrapped her arms around her and concentrated on comforting her.

"It's going to be okay," Chaeyoung said. "It turned out all right. You're safe, and that's all that matters." Jisoo snuggled closer into Chaeyoung's embrace, sobbing slightly.

Just then, the Twice's van pulled up, Sana behind the wheel and Dahyun riding shotgun. "Hey guys," Dahyun called out, concern written all over her face. "What happened?"


	23. Chapter 23

As Sana and Dahyun got out of the front of the van, Momo, Nayeon, and Tzuyu tumbled out of the back. "What happened?" Dahyun asked.

"We had a fire in the kitchen this morning," Jennie said. "Jisoo put it out, and probably saved the whole lodge, but I don't know how I'm going to feed you this weekend."

"Leave that to me," Chaeyoung said. "I'll call some of the restaurants around the valley, call in some favors, and arrange for catering."

Jennie looked up at her, surprised. "Do you really think you can do that?"

Chaeyoung nodded. "Restaurant people will always help each other out in a bind. I might not be owed enough favors to cover the whole weekend, but I can at least get us some good discounts."

Jennie nodded decisively. "Do whatever you have to do - our guests have to eat, and so do we."

Sana looked around. "So since the fire truck is still here, I'm guessing the fire just happened?"

Jennie nodded. "If you had shown up 15 minutes ago, you'd have seen Chaeyoung panicking because Jisoo was still in the basement."

Momo looked over at Jisoo. "Good job putting out the fire. That's impressive."

Jisoo shivered and laughed weakly. "Now that it's over, I can't believe I did it."

Nayeon nodded. "It's amazing what you can do when you have to. At dinner tonight, I'll tell you about how Momo saved some of our guests this year."

"Don't you dare," Momo said, narrowing her eyes at Nayoung.

"She has to now," Chaeyoung said. "We know there's a story, so we're gonna want to hear it."

Just then Jennie came back over. "The firefighters have given us the all clear to go back inside, so let's get our guests in out of the cold. Lisa, Sunmi, help with their luggage. Jisoo, Chaeyoung, start arranging for dinner. I'll make some phone calls to see when we can have our kitchen up and running again."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung and Jisoo went up to their room to start calling all the restaurants in her little black book.

"Let's see if we can start with lunch from Pentagon," Jisoo said.

"Sounds good," Chaeyoung agreed. "You give them a call and I'll start calling around for tonight's dinner."

They each pulled out their phones and started dialing. Several minutes later, they both hung up at the same time and looked at each other.

"Dinner's sorted," Chaeyoung said. "Is the crew at Pentagon going to be able to do lunch?"

"They will," Jisoo said, "but there's big news at Pentagon you should probably be aware of."

Chaeyoung finished writing the lunch and dinner arrangements in her notebook and looked up. "Big news? What happened?"

"Apparently Chef E'Dawn was dating the pastry chef," Jisoo said.

"I half expected it, seeing the way they interacted in the kitchen," Chaeyoung said.

"But that's not the big news," Jisoo said. "The big news is that their investors found out and fired both of them."

"E'Dawn and Hyuna got fired? For dating?"

Jisoo nodded. "Apparently they had the worst contract ever with their investors. The other chefs are keeping things going, but E'Dawn and Hyuna are gone."

Chaeyoung scratched her head. "I'm sure Hyuna will find a new position quickly, but I'm worried about E'Dawn - he's closer to the start of his career. Keep your ears open for any vacancies we might tell him about."

Jisoo nodded. "Will do. Now we've got to get started on tomorrow's meals. I'm thinking the Penguin for brunch."

"Sounds good," Chaeyoung said, "See if you can get them to do Monday's breakfast as well. Once we've got everything arranged through Monday night, we should go check with Jennie and see how much longer we'll be without our kitchen."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

"I got in touch with the appliance store and the carpenter, and we can have the kitchen ready to go again in 3 days."

"That's not so bad," Chaeyoung said.

"Unfortunately," Jennie said, letting the word hang in the air a moment, "the three days won't start until Tuesday, so we're without a kitchen until next Friday."

"We can make it work," Chaeyoung said. "We can-"

Just then Jennie's phone rang. She looked at the screen and wrinkled her brow. "I'd better take this." Chaeyoung nodded and stepped away to give her some privacy.

A couple of minutes later, Jennie hung up her phone and rejoined Chaeyoung, her face aglow with delight.

"You'll never guess who that was," Jennie said.

Chaeyoung shook her head.

"Baek A-Yeon," Jennie said with a smile. "Apparently Tzuyu called and told her about out situation, and she was calling me to tell me that you and Jisoo can use the kitchen at her bar until our kitchen's up and running again."

"That's great," Chaeyoung said. "What should I do about the catering I've already ordered? Jisoo and I have already arranged all our meals through Monday."

"Let the orders stand," Jennie said. "It'll be a nice treat for everyone, and it'll mean most of the days you're cooking at A-Yeon's are staff-only days."

"Sounds good," Chaeyoung said. "Jisoo and I had better get started on seeing what can be salvaged from the food downstairs. Hopefully at least some of it can be saved."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

That evening saw everyone gathered around the Fire Lodge's main dining table. The sideboard was overflowing with good things that Chaeyoung's friends at Vibe had cooked. Jennie had decided to open a couple of special bottles of wine from the cellar. Everyone was feeling good, and Nayeon was just starting to tell her story.

"We'd been hired for a scuba-diving adventure," she began, "so we rented a boat and set out with a crew of three: Momo as dive master, myself as captain and navigator, and Mina as ship's cook."

Jisoo looked dubious. "You're talking about the same Mina I know? She can cook?"

"Only on a boat," Nayeon clarified. "On land she can burn water, but on a boat she's a crackerjack chef. Nothing fancy, but the guests seem to like it. Anyway, as a special treat for the clients, we'd arranged for a day of diving at a sunken steamliner. Something like the Titanic, only not quite as fancy and not nearly as deep."

"So, Momo and the guests had been down at the wreck for about 40 minutes, and we were expecting them to come up any minute. But they didn't come up on schedule. Ten minutes later, they still weren't up.  Fifteen minutes late, twenty minutes late.  At 25 minutes late, they finally came up - it turns out on of the guests had gotten his foot stuck in part of the engine. Momo had to rip the bolts out with her bare hands to get the client free. They all made it to the surface with only about a minute of air to spare."

Jisoo shuddered. "Wow! I think I'll stick with dry land."

"Diving's usually safe," Momo said. "You've just got to stay calm and be prepared for the unexpected."

^   ^   ^   ^   ^   ^

After the guests had gone up to their beds, Jennie and Lisa went out to the back deck.  They lay down on one of the chaise longues and looked up at the stars.  After a couple of minutes' silence, Jennie rolled over and started kissing Lisa.  Their kisses deepened and lengthened, and Jennie climbed astride Lisa and pressed herself as close as she possibly could.  After a couple of minutes, they had to stop to breathe.

"Not that I'm complaining," Lisa said, "but what brought that on?"

Jennie laid her head on Lisa's shoulder.  "With all the talk of death and near-death today, I just wanted to prove to the world that we're still alive."

Lisa laughed.  "Well, you've certainly convinced me."

Jennie sat up and looked down at Lisa.  "I mean it.  Jisoo could have died today.  Momo could have died this summer.  I don't want to lose you."

"Well," Lisa said with an impish smile, "I'm not planning on going anywhere unless you send me away."

"That's good," Jennie said.  "But we still have to plan for the unexpected."

"What did you have in mind?"

Jennie took a deep breath and looked around.  "I want us to have kids as soon as this season is over.  Both of us.  And don't try to turn this into a joke because I'm totally serious here."

Lisa took a deep breath and blinked several times.  "I'm not saying yes right now, but I'm not saying no either.  It's a lot to think about.  And I'd like to point on one major think missing from your plan:  Fathers?  Or at least sperm donors?"

"I've already thought of that:  G-Dragon and Bam-Bam."

"Bam-Bam like the firefighter?  Who was here today?"

Jennie nodded.  "They're some of the most decent guys I know.  Plus they're both super-gay, so we won't have to worry about them getting attached to us.  Plus. . . " Jennie paused and took a deep breath so she could get the rest of her plan out without pausing.  "if I get pregnant by Bam-Bam and you get pregnant by G-Dragon, then both of our kids will be half Korean and half Thai, the same as if we were able to make them all by ourselves."

Lisa managed to free one of her arms, and reached up and stroked Jennie's face.  "You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"  After Jennie nodded, she went on.  "This is too much for me to decide tonight, but I promise I'll think about it."

"That's all I can ask," Jennie said, snuggling up to Lisa.

"Uh-oh," Lisa said.  "Somebody's getting all comfy.  We'd better get you inside before you fall asleep."

^   ^   ^   ^   ^   ^

Chaeyoung and Jisoo were lying in their bed, waiting for sleep that wouldn't come.

"I just can't believe it," Chaeyoung said, "I was so close to losing you today."

Jisoo rolled over to face Chaeyoung and put her hand on her arm.  "But you didn't lose me.  And it's not like I'm a firefighter or something, where I'm rushing into danger every day."

Chaeyoung looked at her.  "I know," she said, "but things are so unpredictable.  We never know what the future will hold."

Jisoo looked deeply into Chaeyoung's eyes.  "You're not going to try to use this as a reason to have kids or something like that, are you?"

Chaeyoung smiled slyly.  "Not kids," she said, "but definitely 'something'."  She sat up and looked down at Jisoo.  "Jisoo, will you make me the happiest woman in the world?  Will you marry me?"

Jisoo looked at Chaeyoung.  Her jaw dropped.  She sat up.  "Are you serious?"

Chaeyoung nodded.  "I was planning to ask you at the end of the season.  I was planning to buy you a big ring when we got back to Seoul, and take you out to dinner, and then for a carriage ride in the park, then while we were sitting by a fountain I was going to ask you.  But after what happened today, I just can't wait.  So. . . will you?"

Jisoo threw her arms around Chaeyoung's neck.  "Of course I will!  I don't need a big ring - it would just get in the way in the kitchen.  And nothing anyone else could cook for us could hold a candle to your cooking.  And I'm allergic to horses.  But yes, Chaeyoung, I will marry you."

Chaeyoung smiled at her, speechless, tears rolling down her face, totally overcome with emotion.  She swallowed a couple of times, then said.  "Now we've got to set a date.  Any ideas?"

"Sometime before the end of the season," Jisoo said.  "I want to have our wedding here at Fire Lodge.  And I want the biggest, fanciest wedding we can pull off - now that you've revealed you do have a romantic side, you can't expect me not to take advantage of it."

Still smiling through her tears, Chaeyoung kissed Jisoo.  "Whatever you say, my heart."


	24. Chapter 24

The guests were just beginning to stir the next morning when Jisoo came in with a box and a thermal bag containing the day's brunch. Chaeyoung saw her struggling to get through the door and rushed to take the box out of her hands.

"Thanks," Jisoo said. "I was trying to get it all at once, but it looks like it was too much for me, especially with the new combination lock on the door."

Chaeyoung put the box down on the sideboard and started unpacking the breads, juices, and pastries from it. "Is this everything?"

"That's everything for brunch," Jisoo said, already on her way back to the car. "I just have to get one more thing out of the car."

Chaeyoung had finished unpacking the cold brunch supplies and had moved on to setting up the warmers for the hot food when she heard Jisoo come back in - followed closely by a strange, muffled, fluttery sort of crash.

"Are you okay?" Chaeyoung called out.

"Fine," Jisoo responded.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Jisoo said, the sound of her voice making it obvious she was moving around picking up something. "Just dropped some things."

By this time Chaeyoung had made it to the doorway and saw that Jisoo was picking up a stack of bridal magazines, each the size of a phonebook.

"What's all this?" Chaeyoung asked with a nervous laugh.

"I told you," Jisoo said, finally wrangling the stack into some semblance of order, "I want the fanciest wedding we can manage. So on the way to Penguin to pick up brunch, I stopped at the newsstand and bought some bridal magazines."

"Some?" Chaeyoung asked. "Are you sure you didn't buy all of them?"

Jisoo blushed - Chaeyoung knew her so well. "I didn't know which ones were good and which weren't, so I got one of everything: Bride, Modern Bride, Korean Bride, Bride Korea, Mountain Bride, Destination Weddings -"

Chaeyoung cut off the recitation of titles before Jisoo could go any further. "You do realize, don't you, that if you keep buying this many bridal magazines, we won't have any money left over for the wedding?"

"Oh, I don't have to keep buying all of them," Jisoo said, trying to neaten the stack of magazines and almost dropping it in the process. "Once I finish reading these, I'll know which one matches our wedding style, so I'll only need to buy that one."

"We have a wedding style?" Chaeyoung asked, getting more and more amused by this.

"We do," Jisoo said. "Or, at least, we will by the time I finish reading these." At this point Jisoo decided that the magazine on the top of the stack needed to be on the top, and facing the other way. She managed to get it done, but it make Chaeyoung nervous just to watch her.

"Here, let me get that," Chaeyoung said. She took the stack of magazines out of Jisoo's hands, put them down on the front desk, and in a matter of moments had them stacked in order of size, all neatly lined up and facing the same way.

"You always did have magic fingers," Jisoo said with a wink, making Chaeyoung blush. She picked up the stack of magazines off the desk. "I'll go put these in our room, and I'll let everyone else know that breakfast is ready.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

During brunch, Lisa noticed that Jisoo and Chaeyoung seemed a lot happier than it seemed like a pair of chefs who'd just lost their kitchen normally would be. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her, and she had to ask "Jisoo, you and Chaeyoung seem pretty happy this morning. Any particular reason?"

Jisoo turned to Chaeyoung, mouthed something, to which Chaeyoung responded with a nod. "Last night, Chaeyoung asked me to marry her, and I said yes!"

"Congratulations!" "That's wonderful!" "Congrats!" "I'm so happy for you!" A wave of congratulations washed over the happy couple. When things had quieted down a bit, Jennie asked "Have you given any thoughts to where or when?"

"When is sometime toward the end of the season - we haven't set an exact date yet.' Chaeyoung responded. "As for where, we wanted to talk to you about possibly holding it right here at the lodge. It seems fitting, considering this is where we met and where we fell in love."

Jennie smiled. "Of course you can have it here! That will be wonderful!"

Lisa looked teasingly at Jennie and said "She's only saying that because she wants to use your wedding pictures in next year's marketing materials."

Jennie faked being shocked. "I'd never even thought of such a thing. But now that she mentions it. . . Chaeyoung?"

Chaeyoung put her arm around Jisoo's shoulders. "You'll have to ask Bridezilla over here about that."

"Bridezilla?" Jisoo asked, pinching Chaeyoung in the ribs.

"You should have seen the stack of bridal magazines she brought in this morning," Chaeyoung said, holding her arms to indicate the height of the stack.

"I'm sure it will be a perfectly lovely event,. With such a loving couple, there's no way it could possibly not be," Tzuyu said. "Now, if everyone will excuse, I've got somewhere I need to be."

"Can I walk with you?" Dahyun asked. "I've got something I want to talk to you about."

"If you're ready to go right now, sure," Tzuyu said, standing up and heading toward the coat room.

Dahyun turned to Sana. "I'll meet you up on the slopes. I've just got to take care of this."

"Just don't take too long," Sana said. "You promised to teach me to snowboard today."

"I won't be long," Dahyun said, 'I've just got to have this quick conversation with Tzuyu."

And with that, the brunch party broke up: Tzuyu and Dahyun headed into town; Jennie and Lisa went to the front desk to go over some business; Sunmi headed upstairs to start the day's cleaning; Sana, Nayeon, and Momo were off to start the day's skiing; and Chaeyoung and Jisoo stayed behind to clean up the brunch dishes and pack up the leftovers.

"That went well," Chaeyoung said.

"Had you thought that it wouldn't?" Jisoo asked, looking confused.

Chayoung shrugged. "You never know how people are going to react. I'm just glad they were all happy for us."

"Me too," Jisoo said, smiling at Chaeyoung.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Tzuyu and Dahyun were headed up the freshly shoveled sidewalks toward the center of town.

"Where are we heading?" Dahyun asked.

"To A-Yeon's club," Tzuyu responded. "She's got a friend who's a business analyst who agreed to meet with me this morning so take a look at what the valley needs that I can supply."

After a long moment's silence, Dahyun quietly asked "So. . . this thing with A-Yeon. . . It's pretty serious?"

Tzuyu stopped and turned to face Dahyun, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Yes, it is, not that it's any of your business. And if you're here to try to talk me into coming back to Seoul and getting back together with Jihyo, you can turn at the next corner and head for the slopes, because that's a conversation I've already had to have far too many times with far too many people this past week."

Dahyun backed away, holding her hands up defensively. "No, I wasn't about to say anything like that at all," she said quickly. "I wanted to talk to you about something else entirely."

Tzuyu took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. "OK. Sorry about that. It's just, I've had to have that conversation so many times and I don't want to do it again."

"No, look," Dahyun said, "I haven't met A-Yeon yet, but I trust your judgment. Besides, I've been on the receiving end of people's well-meant 'relationship advice' enough times that I'd never do it to someone else."

Starting to walk up the sidewalk again, Tzuyu asked "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"A wedding present for Chaeyoung and Jisoo."

Tzuyu laughed. "You don't waste any time! What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking if we all nine put in together, we could use our industry discounts and plan them a way better honeymoon than what they could afford for themselves, and for not much more money than a bunch of dishes and towels from their registry that they'll never use anyway."

"Where would we send them?" Tzuyu asked, looking around and soaking in the sights of the valley.

"Just leave that to me," Dahyun said, "I'll make sure the others are on board, crunch some numbers, and get back with a preliminary plan by the end of the week."

Tzuyu laughed. "If I'd have know all it took to bring out this motivated, responsible side of you was for one of your friends to get married, I'd have done it myself years ago!" She reached over and gave Dahyun a hug as they walked. "Seriously, though, it sounds like a great plan, and I'm totally on board." She looked up and saw that they had reached A-Yeon's club. "And this is me," Tzuyu said.

"Just a second," Dahyun said, grabbing Tzuyu's arm before she could turn away. She took a deep breath, her face's serious cast totally at odds with her usual breezy demeanor. "We always knew Twice would split up eventually," she said, "but I never would have guessed that you'd be the first one to leave. Take care of yourself. I'll miss you." Dahyun's eyes glistened.

"Hey," Tzuyu said, pulling Dahyun into a hug, "I'm just moving to the valley, not to Mars or something. You'll still see me from time to time, and I'll always be just a phone call away. Now, you'd better get up the mountain before Sana gets tired of waiting for you."

Dahyun nodded. Not trusting her voice, she waved silently to Tzuyu as she headed up the street. Tzuyu watched her until she turned the corner and went out of sight, then turned and went into A-Yeon's club.


	25. Chapter 25

Chaeyoung and Jisoo went through the supplies in the kitchen, salvaging whatever could be salvaged and tossing whatever couldn't. As they carried the last load out to the dumpster, Chaeyoung turned to Jisoo and said "You might as well go get a shower and then take the rest of the afternoon off, until time to go pick up dinner. I'll go give Jennie the news."

When Chaeyoung walked up to Jennie at the front desk, Jennie could tell from her face what kind of news she had come to deliver. "This doesn't look like a happy news face," she said. "How bad is it?"

"It was a total loss," Chaeyoung said, shaking her head. "The fire knocked out the electricity, so everything in the cooler and freezer went bad, plus the smoke got into everything else. I thought I might have been able to save the spices, but the jar lids weren't airtight enough to keep out the smoke."

"How much is it going to cost to get the kitchen up and running for next weekend's guests?"

The number Chaeyoung named made Jennie's face blanch. "But don't worry," Chaeyoung said quickly, "Jisoo and I came up with a solution - since we don't really spend much money during the season, we can use the money that would have been our next paycheck to restock the kitchen?"

"But what if I can't make up the money by the end of the season?"

"I'm sure you'll be able to," Chaeyoung said, "and if by some strange twist of fate you're not, there's always next season."

"You're pretty optimistic, assuming the lodge will still be open next season," Lisa said, shaking her head.

"No, just realistic," Chaeyoung said, reaching across the desk to stroke Jennie's arm. "I can't possibly imagine anything that would make you close the lodge."

"At least one of us has faith in me," Jennie said with a weak smile.

"Two of us," Lisa said as she rounded the corner.

"Probably three," Chaeyoung says, "I bet Jisoo's got faith in you too."

"Where is Bridezilla?" Lisa asked.

"I sent her to get a shower, and she's probably elbow-deep in bridal magazines by now." Chaeyoung looked at the clock. "Unless you need me for something, I'm going to go up and get a shower, get the smoke out of my hair. Then I'll have to go to the store to pick up the few things that can't wait until Jisoo and I go into town on Monday: Cocoa, coffee, sugar."

"Get some milk, too," Lisa said. "I know some of our guests take their coffee with milk. I'll get one of the mini fridges out of storage and set it up in the dining room."

"Okay," Chaeyoung said, writing this down. "I'll leave my list on the desk here, in case you think of anything else while I'm showering."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Nayeon, Sana, Dahyun, and Momo were taking a break from skiing, having a cup of cocoa while they all grilled Dahyun about her idea for the wedding present.

Nayeon was looking at the numbers Dahyun had written down, her forehead wrinkled in concentration. "You really think we could pull this off?"

"Sure," Dahyun said, nodding enthusiastically. "We know where to get the best prices on everything, then on top of that we get 35% discount on airfare, 30-40% on hotel rooms, 50% on breakfasts. They take care of lunches and dinners, we split the cost 9 ways and suddenly weren't down in the stand mixer price range."

Momo took the sheet of paper from Sana. "I'd like to have Jihyo double-check your numbers, but if she says they check out and the others are on board, then I'm in."

"Me too," Sana and Nayeon said at once, leading them to break out in a fit of giggles.

"I already sent the numbers to Jihyo," Dahyun said. "She said she'd check it out with the rest of the crew. Assuming my numbers are right, we should be ready to start the serious work on this by the end of the weekend."

"Where are you wanting to send them?" Nayeon asked.

"Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand," Dahyun said, counting on her fingers. "Chaeyoung's said before that she wants to do a cook's tour of Asia, to get to examine other cuisines in their native country, and I'm sure whatever makes Chaeyoung happy will make Jisoo happy."

"That sounds great!" Sana said. "Now, let's get back out on the slopes!"

Dahyun laughed as she leaned over and hugged Sana. "At least someone doesn't forget why we're here!"

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung was drying her hair after her shower, getting ready to run to the store.

"You want to go to the store with me?" Chaeyoung asked.

Jisoo looked up from the wedding magazines she had spread out around her. "Sure," she said. "I've got to clear my head anyway. Everything's starting to blur together."

"We've got months to get everything planned," Chaeyoung said. "At least some of that time we're likely to be snowed in and looking for something to do."

"True," Jisoo agreed, "but we've got to settle on dresses in time to order them from Seoul."

"I'm sure we'll manage," Chaeyoung said.

"That reminds me," Jisoo said. "I know I want a wedding dress. Do you want a dress or a tuxedo?"

"I think a dress," Chaeyoung said, "unless you really want me in a tuxedo."

"A dress would be great," Jisoo said. "Do we want the same dress or different dresses?"

"I don't know," Chaeyoung said, "but we'd better leave now so we can have coffee when our guests get in."

"OK, just let me put in my bookmarks and I'm ready to go."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

"Lisa-sunbae, do you want me to take over the desk for a while?"

Lisa looked up suddenly to see Sunmi standing in front of her. "Oh, sure. Thanks. It''s been quiet all afternoon, and I don't expect that it'll change."

Lisa got Sunmi settled in behind the desk and then took off to look for Jennie. She found her sitting on their bed, surrounded by papers, typing on her laptop.

"Just a second," Jennie said around a pencil held between her teeth. She typed frantically for another minute or so, then triumphantly clicked something. Putting the pencil down, Jennie turned to Lisa. "Can I help you with something?"

"Well," Lisa said, arching an eyebrow, "I was looking for my girlfriend, but instead it appears I've found the manager of Fire Lodge."

Jennie laughed and then reached up to rub her scalp, running her fingers through her hair. "Guilty as charged. It's only. . . did you hear about what Chaeyoung and Jisoo are doing?" When Lisa shook her head, she quickly went on: "They're putting their next paycheck on hold indefinitely so that we can use that money to restock the kitchen. If they're going to do that for the lodge, I owe it to them to do everything I can."

Lisa sat down on the edge of the bed, being careful not to disturb any of the papers, and took Jennie's hand. "I understand that, but if you work yourself too hard, you won't be any good to any of us. What have you done so far today?"

Jennie started ticking things off on her fingers. "I sent an update out to our mailing list telling them about the fire and letting them know we'll be up and running by the end of the week. I also listed all the restaurants that are helping us out during the emergency and encouraged our customers to give them some business during their stay. I also wrote a letter to the Valley Chamber of Commerce praising all the restaurants that helped us out during this weekend."

"Okay!" Lisa said, talking hold of Jennie's hands again. "That sounds like plenty for one morning. What do you say once Chaeyoung and Jisoo get back from the store, you and I go snowshoeing for a while."

"But I've got so many things left to do," Jennie said.

"And will anything bad happen if you postpone any of them for an hour?" Lisa asked, staring intently into Jennie's eyes.

Jennie shook her head no, but immediately started talking: "But, I've got to-"

Lisa cut her off. "And you can do it an hour or two from now. You need a break, you need the exercise. Hell, you need the sunshine. When was the last time you were outside?"

"Yesterday," Jennie responded quickly.

"Evacuations don't count," Lisa said. "What's the point of living in such a beautiful place if you never get to enjoy it? You said you were going to concentrate more on hostessing this season - do you think our guests want a hostess who's all pasty and worn down?"

"No, but-"

"But nothing. We're going as soon as Chaeng and Jisoo get back."

"I know you're right-"

"Then why are you still arguing?"

Jennie laughed. "There's no way I'm not going snowshoeing, is there?"

Lisa shook her head. "Nope. Now, I think I just heard a car pull up. Let's head on out and let everyone know our plans."


	26. Chapter 26

Jennie used her phone to take some pictures of the Lodge's Christmas tree for the email newsletter. She paused for a moment to reflect on the past couple of weeks. True to their word, the carpenters had the kitchen ready to go in 3 days. That included taking out all of the smoke-damaged wood, so there was no way to tell there had been a fire. Chaeyoung was pleased with the new appliances - they were all basic but study; Jennie couldn't afford anything fancy and Chaeyoung said she probably wouldn't have used the fancy features anyway. 

When the fire inspector had come out to inspect the new kitchen, some of the firefighters had come along with him. They declared Jisoo an honorary firefighter for putting out the kitchen fire. After new new kitchen was declared safe by the inspector, Chaeyoung had the firefighters stay for lunch.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

As Jisoo and Chaeyoung cleaned up the kitchen after lunch, Jisoo chattered on about what she was finding in the bridal magazines. Chaeyoung listened with half an ear - it wasn't that she didn't care, just that she knew Jisoo cared a whole lot more than she did, so it was Jisoo who ultimately had to be made happy.

"And you know what?" Jisoo asked.

Since they had already covered flowers, linen, reception menu, DJ versus band, who would perform the ceremony, and various thoughts on dresses, Chaeyoung honestly had no idea what would come up next. "What?"

"Chief Kim said that since I'm an honorary firefighter now, we can have a fire department honor guard at our wedding!"

Chaeyoung couldn't resist teasing Jisoo a little about her new firefighter status. "You're not going to have to wear a firefighter's uniform for the ceremony, are you?"

Jisoo laughed. "No, silly. But think how awesome we'll look marching out with a fire company in full formal uniforms lined up on both sides of us, forming an archway of fire axes above our head!"

Chaeyoung smiled indulgently. "I guess that will be pretty awesome - I've never known anyone who's had that. And it'd look a lot better then an honor guard of chefs in dress whites, holding their knifes over us."

Jisoo playfully splashed some water at Chaeyoung, who quickly stepped back. "Now you're just making fun of me!" she said. "That never happens!"

"No, it doesn't," Chaeyoung admitted. "But think how cool it would be."

"I guess. . ." Jisoo admitted hesitantly. "This doesn't mean your thinking of wearing your chef's whites for the wedding, does it?"

Chaeyoung laughed. "No, I thought about it, but I think I'd rather have a dress."

"I'm flattered!" Jisoo said. "I don't think I've ever seen you wear a dress, but you want to wear one for me!"

Chaeyoung put the last clean dish in the drying rack. She reached over and turned of the water, then turned toward Jisoo. She wrapped her arms around Jisoo as she said. "A dress? I'd stand stark raving naked in front of all of our friends if that was what it took to get to marry you."

Jisoo wrapped her around around Chaeyoung and leaned in for a kiss. "I'm tempted to hold you to that, but you'd better save that for the honeymoon."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

It was shift change time at the front desk - Sunmi had the afternoon off, and she'd made a date with Officer Kim - Hansol, she corrected herself, feeling his name in her mouth.

"And here are the phone calls I'm expecting, and what we need to talk to each person about," Sunmi was telling Lisa as she handed her a sheet of paper. "And all of next week's guests have already confirmed, so you shouldn't hear from them. I checked the stunner and the radio at the beginning of my shift - they're both fully charged, and -"

Out of the corner of her eye, Lisa saw Hansol's car pull up in front of the lodge. "And your date's here," she said. "Don't worry about us - I think we can manage without you for one afternoon." She laughed to make sure Sunmi knew she was joking. "Have fun, and we'll see you tonight - hopefully after dinner."

"I don't know that we'll be out that long," Sunmi said.

"Well, if you are, have fun - it's your day off, and after this week none of us will see one of those until after New Year's."

Sunmi said good-bye to Lisa, bowed out from behind the desk, and jogged over to the door. She waved to Hansol as she came out, just as he was coming around the car to open her door. Lisa watched through the window, smiling happily when Sunmi and Hansol apparently decided that a second date should start with a hug. Then she turned back to the desk, smiling and humming to herself as she set aside the papers Sunmi had given her and turned on the computer to see if all the reservations for Christmas week were confirmed.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa was sitting at the front desk, watching the sunset through the windows. Jennie came up behind her. "Isn't you're shift over yet?"

Lisa checked the time on her phone. "Not for another hour and ten minutes. We're supposed to have someone manning the phones until 5."

"Screw that," Jennie said, coming up and catching Lisa up in a back-hug. "If anyone calls at this time on a Friday, they deserve to get sent to voicemail."

Lisa spun around, a shocked expression on her face. "What's this? Jennie Kim saying her guests deserve something less than the very best?"

"Their not my guests until they show up," Jennie said with a laugh. "Until then, screw them."

Lisa joined in with Jennie's laughter. "Well, you're certainly in a good mood today!"

"I am!" Jennie said, a smile spreading over her face. "I really am! All the Christmas preparations are done, Chaeyoung and Jisoo are going to restock the kitchen tomorrow, and right now I've got an important task I need your help with."

"And what would that be?" Lisa asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Well," Jennie said, "I've invented some special cocktails for Christmas and New Year's here at the lodge. I think they're all good, but I need someone else to taste them.

Lisa put a faux-shocked expression on her face. "Why, Ms. Kim! If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to get me drunk!"

Jennie smiled deviously. "And if I was?"

Lisa leaned in and kissed her. "I'd tell you not to bother - that you can have me in your bed whenever you want, just by asking."

"As tempting as that offer is," Jennie said, "I really do need someone to taste-test cocktails."

Lisa moved her mouth closer to Jennie's ear and quietly asked. "And after I'm drunk, will you take advantage of me? I've been very bad. . . or good. . . whichever it takes."

"Tell you what," Jennie said. "Let me mix up the cocktails and we can take them back to our room, see what happens."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much happens this chapter - I'm trying to get back in the rhythm of this story after too long away from it - but I hope you enjoy it anyway.


	27. Testing cocktails

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another smut chapter. If that's not your style, you can skip it without missing any of the plot.

Lisa sat at the bar while Jennie mixed up about a dozen different cocktails. She loved watching Jennie work at the bar - she was so meticulous about measuring things, and her tongue poked out of her mouth a little when she was concentrating. Lisa thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen.

After the drinks were sitting on the tray, Jennie picked up the tray and said, "Come on - let's take this back to our room and we can get to tasting."

"And other things," Lisa thought to herself.

When they got to their room, Jennie put the tray of drinks down on the dresser and picked up her notebook and pen. "OK," she said. "Time for you to start tasting!"

"You're not going to taste them too?" Lisa asked.

"I've already tasted them all," Jennie said. "I need someone else's opinion."

"OK," Lisa said. She picked up a yellow drink in a martini glass. "I think I'll start with this one." She took a small sip, then a slightly larger one, then screwed her face up in distaste. "Too sour," she said, putting it back on the tray.

"OK, a little less lemon juice next time," Jennie said, making a note. "Why don't you try the blue one next."

Lisa picked up the next glass, blue drink in a marguerita glass, the rim edged with salt or sugar. "This looks interesting," she said. She took a sip and a smile spread over her face. "Oh yeah, that's good! I could drink these all night!" She tilted her head back and downed the rest of the drink.

"Whoa! Slow down there Lise! You've got a lot of drinks left to try!" Jennie said, her eyes big.

"Bring 'em on!" Lisa said, smiling warmly at Lisa. "I'll try this brown one next." She picked up a highball glass and took a sip. "We need some music," she said. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, started some music playing, and put it on the dresser next to the drinks tray. "That's good," she said, dancing in place a little.

Jennie watched Lisa dance for a minute, then asked "What about the drink Lisa? Is that one okay?"

Lisa took another sip. "Yeah, this one's good too." She kept dancing, holding the drink in her hand. "Let me try the next one. She put the drink down and picked up the one next to it. She smelled it. "Smells like cinnamon!"

"It's got Fireball in it," Jennie said.

Lisa took a sip of it. "Oh, that is good!" she said. "If you decide you want a different career, you'd make a great bartender!"

"Thanks!" Jennie said, enjoying watching Lisa dance around the room.

"It's too bright in here," Lisa said. She turned on a bedside lamp, turned off the overhead light, and danced over next to Jennie. "Hold this," she said, putting her drink into Jennie's hands. "Take a drink! It's unfair for you to be totally sober during this."

The song ended and a slower song came on. Lisa danced into the center of the room, swinging her hips from side to side. Staring into Jennie's eyes, she unbuttoned her shirt, took it off, and threw it on the floor. Jennie cheered, then took another sip of the drink. Lisa reached one hand behind her back, unfastened her bra and took that off; it quickly joined her shirt on the floor. She danced over by Jennie, running her hands through Jennie's hair. Jennie looked up at her.

"Let's try this," Lisa said. She dipped her nipple in the cocktail and offered it to Jennie. Jennie licked it, then took Lisa's nipple in her mouth. Lisa threw her head back and moaned. Jennie switched over to Lisa's over nipple. Lisa fell back on the bed, pulling Jennie down with her.

"Whoa!" Jennie exclaimed and she fell. She did her best to avoid spilling the drink, but some of it sloshed out onto Lisa's stomach. Jennie leaned down and licked it up before it spilled on to the bed.

"Help me get these off," Lisa said, unbuttoning her jeans. She lifted her hips as Jennie pulled her jeans down. Jennie then pulled Lisa's underwear to the side and stroked up and down her sex, feeling the wetness that had accumulated there. Lisa threw her head back and moaned. "Oh yeah!"

Jennie found Lisa's clit and rubbed it with her thumb, using Lisa's own wetness as a lubricant. Lisa continued moaning, interspersed with wordless cries. "Oh, God, Jennie! Don't you ever stop!" She grabbed Jennie's shirt and pulled her down, her tongue exploring Jennie's mouth. Soon she had to stop to breathe, then threw her head back, crying out. Jennie smiled down at her.

"You're beautiful when you come," Jennie said. Lisa closed her eyes, her breathing ragged.

"That felt so good," Lisa said, catching her breath.

Jennie leaned down and kissed her again. "What do you want to do now?" she asked. "We've still got more drinks to test."

Lisa grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around herself. "Let me get my clothes back on - I'm cold."

'Here, I can help with that," Jennie said, sliding inside the blanket with Lisa, wrapping herself around her.

"That's better," Lisa said, snuggling up against Jennie. She looked across the room at the dresser. "If only I hadn't left the drinks all the way over there."

Jennie slid out from under the blanket. "I'll get the drinks," she said, "and I'll get you a nightshirt, too."

Jennie handed Lisa her favorite flannel nightshirt; Lisa wriggled into it while Jennie went to fetch the drinks.

Lisa picked up one of the drinks, something red in a martini glass, and handed another one to Jennie, another red one in a highball glass. "I've got an idea!" she said. "Let's play 'Never have I ever.'"

"Why not?" Jennie said. "Sounds fun."

"Okay," Lisa said, taking a deep breath, "never have I ever. . ."


	28. Chapter 28

Before they stopped at the grocery store, Jisoo and Chaeyoung stopped at G-Dragon's auto shop. He saw them pull in and came out to meet them.

"Hey! Something wrong with the truck?" His brow was furrowed with concern.

"No, the truck's great," Chaeyoung said. "I don't think it's ever run so well as after whatever you did to it. No. . . ummm . . . I'm here to buy you that beer I owe you and I need to ask you a question."

"Sure thing - business is dead today, so I might as well knock off a little early. I'll be closing the place down in a few months anyway."

"You couldn't find someone to run it for you while you're in the army?" Jisoo asked.

G-Dragon shook his head. "Nah. The only people I trust that much all work at the Fire Lodge."

Chaeyoung reached out and messed up G-Dragon's hair. "What're you doing? Trying to make me blush?" She turned and tossed the truck keys to Jisoo. "Babe, can you go get started on the shopping and I'll meet up with you when I'm done here?"

"Sure thing," Jisoo said. "Take your time. I've got the shopping list and the lodge debit card, so you can take as long as you need to."

Chaeyoung shook her head. "I shouldn't be that long."

Jisoo paused as she was climbing back into the truck. "No, I'm serious - take your time. You're going to miss him while he's in the army."

Chaeyoung nodded. "Thanks." She looked at G-Dragon. "Is Art's still open down the block?" Upon him nodding, she turned back to Jisoo. "OK. We'll be at Art's."

Jisoo smiled. "Have fun!" She climbed in the truck and drove off.

G-Dragon smiled at Chaeyoung. "So I was right about her, eh? Seems like you two are doing really well."

"Yeah. That's what I wanted to talk about." Chaeyoung turned and started walking up the block, and G-Dragon fell in beside her. "We're doing really great. If fact, we're going to get married in a couple of months."

G-Dragon's eyes got huge. "Really? That's awesome!"

Chaeyoung smiled at him. "Yeah, it is."

They were at Art's by this time. They went inside, sat down at the bar, and ordered beers.

"So," G-Dragon said after taking the first swallow of his beer. "There was something you wanted to ask me?"

Chaeyoung nodded. She took a swallow of her beer, then sat the bottle down on the bar and fiddled with a loose corner of the label for a second. "We need you to come out to the Lodge for a day before you leave for the army."

"Sure," G-Dragon said. He started to take another drink, but stopped with the bottle halfway to his mouth. "But there's something else that goes along with this, or you wouldn't be going all secret squirrel on me."

Chaeyoung nodded, took a deep breath, and started talking. "Jisoo and I are getting married before the end of the season, and I want you to be my best man, and you'll have to wear a tuxedo."

"Really?" G-Dragon jumped up and gave Chaeyoung a hug. "That's awesome! I'm so happy for you! And you want me to be your best man? I'm honored. Seriously, honored." He sat down again and took a drink of his beer.

"Were you listening?" Chaeyoung said. "You'll have to wear a tuxedo."

"Believe it or not, I actually do have clothes besides jumpsuits."

"You own a tuxedo?" Chaeyoung lifted her eyebrows skeptically.

G-Dragon nodded. "How do you think I got the money to open up my shop? I used to be maitre d' at Antoine's."

Chaeyoung put her hand on her forehead as if the very idea was making her head hurt. "You went from being maitre d' at one of the finest restaurants in town to being a dishwasher at Fire Lodge?"

G-Dragon nodded. "I couldn't take the stress of working front of the house anymore, I can't cook, and I still needed to make a little more money to have enough to open my shop."

"And you kept your tuxedo?"

"Of course," G-Dragon said with a shrug. "Once my rap career takes off, I'm going to get invited to award shows and I'll need a tuxedo for that."

Chaeyoung smiled. "Ever the optimist. Anyway, thanks G. For being my best man, and for not freaking out over me getting married."

G-dragon took a long drink of his beer, then looked Chaeyoung in the eyes. "There are some people I'd try to talk out of this. But you? I know you wouldn't do this unless you were sure you were doing the right thing. And I'm honored that you'd ask me to be your best man."

Chaeyoung shrugged. "You're welcome. There's no one else I'd rather have beside me."

G-Dragon gasped. "Do you realize what else this means?"

Chaeyoung shook her head.

A big grin spread across G-Dragon's face. "I get to plan your bachelor party! Oh yeah!"

Chaeyoung took a drink of her beer and smiled. She hadn't thought of that, but it promised to be an event.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sunmi and Hansol went bowling - after she convinced him that she wasn't so fragile she couldn't bowl.

"I've just never really been around pregnant women, so I don't know what you can and can't do," he explained.

She laid her hand on his arm. "I'm not breakable," she said. "If I can handle working at Fire Lodge, I can definitely handle an afternoon of bowling. And I'll let you know if it gets to be too much for me."

After a couple of hours of bowling, they were sitting in the bowling ally's cafe, splitting an order of nachos. He was having a beer, and she was having a 7-Up.

"One thing I've read about pregnancy that you might should be aware of: Generally after the first few months the morning sickness is over and we get insanely horny."

He was drinking at the time that she said this. In his surprise, he inhaled some of his beer and starting coughing, trying to catch his breath.

Once he'd stopped coughing and appeared to have caught his breath, she asked "Are you okay? Geez, didn't mean to startle you like that. I mean, it's not like I said I was going to drag you back to my room at the Lodge and have my way with you this afternoon! I was just giving you an idea of what lies ahead if you continue to date me." She laughed a little, then noticed the expression on his face.

"I had hoped to wait a while," he said, "get to know each other better before we had this conversation, but since you've opened the door here, we might as well go through."

She looked at him in puzzlement for a moment, then a look of complication spread over her face. "You're gay." She threw up her hands. "I knew you were too good to be true. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay, it's just-"

"I'm not gay," he cut in. 'I'm asexual."

She looked puzzled. "Like a plant?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, it's like-"

"You're celibate?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm had sex before, and I enjoyed it. It's just not something I feel driven toward."

"So everything works. . . down there?" she asked, gesturing vaguely in the direction of his crotch.

He laughed softly. "Yes. . . How can I explain this. You know how when you go out to a restaurant you have an appetizer, then your entree, then dessert?"

She nodded hesitantly, unsure where he was going with this.

"OK. So imagine foreplay is the appetizer, having sex is the entree, and dessert is holding each other and cuddling afterward."

She nodded. "I think I see."

"So," he went on, "left to my own devices, I might order 2 or 3 appetizers, skip the entree, and go straight to dessert."

She looked confused again. "But you said. . . everything worked. Down there."

He nodded. "It does. And if the person I've gone to the restaurant with orders an entree for the two of us to share, I'll share it with them and enjoy it very much. Just probably not in the same way they do, and, like I said, I probably wouldn't think to order an entree on my own."

She looked down at the table for a second, then looked up and asked "And you don't get hungry, eating nothing but appetizers and desserts?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I'd be happy as a clam with appetizers and desserts. But I can and will share an entree if my partner wants one."

"That's . . ." she stopped herself. "I amost said 'That's weird,' but I guess that would be kind of insulting. It's just. . . it wouldn't be my choice."

He shrugged. "It's not my choice either. It's just how I'm wired."

They both looked down at the rapidly cooking plate of nachos. Neither of them really had an appetite anymore.

"Do you want to go back to the lodge?" he asked.

She nodded slowly. "I think I'd better. I've got a lot to think about."

He nodded. "Yeah, it's a lot to try to figure out. Just so you know: I know it's kind of weird, and it's not something that everyone can - or wants to! - deal with."

"I need to learn more about this before I decide," she said. "This isn't something I'd even heard of before."

He shrugged. "At least you're not saying 'no' out of hand," he said.

She looked up at him. "That happens?"

He nodded. "All the time. I've had dates insist on getting an Uber to get home - they didn't even want to ride in a car with me."

She shook her head.

After a short and mostly silent ride back to Fire Lodge, he opened the door to let her out of the car. "You can call or text me whenever - whenever you decide anything." He started to turn away to get back in the car, but she grabbed his arm.

"Hey!" she said. "Don't I get a hug?"

After a brief hug, as he was letting her go, she said "No matter what I decide about us, I think you're a great guy."

He forced a smile. "Thanks."

He watched until she was safely inside the lodge, then waved and got in the car. As he drove off, he mental replayed the entire afternoon. Had he explained himself clearly? Had he made sure she knew it wasn't because of her? Had she given an hint of what she might eventually decide? In the end, he just decided that he wasn't sure about any of the questions running through his mind.


	29. Chapter 29

Sunmi opened the lock and got into the lobby, then turned and watched Hansol drive off. He waited until she was inside and had shut the door behind her, which she found quite touching. Other than that, she didn't know what to think.

She wandered from the lobby into the dining room. She'd never heard the lodge this quiet - there weren't any guests right now, Chaeyoung and Jisoo apparently weren't back from their grocery run, and Lisa and Jennie were. . . who knows where. Sunmi wandered through all the public areas of the lodge, turning on the lights. As she finished up, she noticed her tummy growling - apparently part of half an order of nachos did not make an adequate dinner. She remembered Jisoo saying they would leave dinner for Sunmi, Lisa, and Jennie in the fridge.

"I hope it's not cheese sandwiches and mango slices again," she thought as she walked down the stairs to the kitchen. "We are capable of warming up previousy cooked food, at the very least."

She turned on the kitchen lights and looked around. She saw a loaf of bread on the prep table with a note pinned to it saying "This is part of dinner. The rest is in the fridge." She opened the fridge and found a pot of French onion soup with reheating directions on the shelf next to it, held in place by a baggie of shredded cheese. Sunmi read through the instructions - nothing she couldn't handle. Warm up the soup on the stove, assemble the bowls, and stick them under the broiler for a couple of minute to melt the cheese.

She put the pot of soup on the stove, turned on the heat, and gave it a good stir. Then she went to the phone on the wall and dialed the number for Jennie's room; she hoped she wasn't interrupting anything, but she needed to know if Jennie and Lisa were in the lodge so she'd know whether or not to fix them dinner. Apparently she wasn't interrupting anything too pressing - Lisa answered on the second ring.

"Hello, it'sh Lisa!" From the sound of it, Lisa had been drinking.

"Hi Lisa. It's Sunmi. I'm warming up my dinner and I was wondering if you and Jennie are ready to eat."

"Jusht a second." Sunmi could hear Lisa putting her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and consulting with Jennie. "Yeah, that'd be great! You need a help?"

Sunmi pictured the amount of damage a drunken Jennie and Lisa could do to Chaeyoung's kitchen in the time it would take Sunmi to warm up the soup. Nope, better not risk it. "No, I've got everything under control here. Just meet me in the dining room in 10 minutes."

"Soundsh great! See you then!" It took Lisa 3 tries to get the phone hung up properly.

Sunmi smiled as she stirred the soup. She'd never seen her bosses at the lodge anything but totally sober and in control. This promised to be an entertaining evening. While the soup warmed up, she turned on the broiler to heat up, got down some bowls, and cut 3 slices of bread off the loaf. She then thought further and figured it would be better to risk the bread drying out than to risk a drunk Lisa or Jennie injuring themselves with the knife, so she went ahead and sliced the rest of the loaf, put it in the bread basket, and put the basket in the dumbwaiter. By this time the soup had warmed up. Sunmi followed the instructions precisely: Put the bowls on the half-sheet pan that was sitting on top of the stove, fill the bowls with soup, float a slice of bread in each bowl, sprinkle cheese over top, then put under the broiler for 2 minutes. Two minutes later, she pulled 3 perfect bowls of French onion soup out of the oven, then put them on a tray and carried them over to the dumbwaiter. Double-checking to be sure she'd turned off both the oven and stove, she went upstairs to see what sort of state Jennie and Lisa were in.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa finished buttoning her shirt and turned to Jennie. "There! All good?"

Jennie looked her over from top to bottom. Based on the state of Lisa's clothes, the drinks had affected her more than she'd let on. "No good. You're shirt's buttoned crooked and you're wearing my jeans!"

"I thought my jeans had gotten short all of a sudden!" Lisa unbuttoned the jeans and started peeling them down her legs. She stumbled a little, and Jennie started forward to help her.

"Oh no you don't," Lisa said, holding up a finger. "You come over here and take off my pants, I know what you're gonna want. And right now I want dinner!"

Stifling her laughter, Jennie took a step back. "There," she said, "now I'm at least 5 feet away from you. You can just toss me the pants when you get them off. Sound good?"

Lisa had gotten the pants off by this time, turning them inside-out in the process. She stood up, swaying slightly, and tossed them to Jennie, who caught them easily and started getting dressed.

"Now, where are my pants?" Lisa asked herself as she looked around the room. She spotted them at the foot of the bed, grabbed them and started putting them on.

"Don't forget your shirt!" Jennie called out from across the room.

"I'm getting to it, Ms. Impatient!" Lisa teased. She finished buttoning her jeans, then straightened out the buttons on her shirt. "There! All done! Let's go eat!" Taking Jennie's hand, Lisa led them out of their bedroom and toward the dining room.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

A couple of hours later, the soup was gone - Sunmi had even gone downstairs and fixed everyone a second bowl. The bottle of wine that Jennie had insisted on opening was gone as well. Jennie had remembered that Sunmi couldn't have wine, but insisted she drink her ginger ale from a wine glass. "It'll look fancier," she said.

So here they were, lingering over the last of the bread and the dregs of the soup, all too comfortable to bother getting up. Lisa and Jennie had told Sunmi stories of their adventures at the lodge the previous year and Sunmi had, at Lisa's urging, told them tales of what it was like growing up in the valley. Lisa actually seemed enthralled by this, and Jennie acted interested, even though Sunmi was sure she must have had many of the same experiences.

Finally, Lisa gathered up the nerve - or the indiscretion - to ask the question that had been bugging her all night. Looking at Sunmi, she asked "So why're you here eating dinner with us? Why didn't you go back to that handsome policeman's apartment and bang his brains out?"

Jennie gasped and covered her mouth. "Lisa!" she exclaimed, "I can't believe you'd ask her not?"

"Like you're not curious," Lisa responded.

"I am curious," Jennie admitted, "but I've got better manners than to ask!"

"No, it's okay," Sunmi said, heading this off before it became an actual argument, "you'd find out about it anyway, I might as well tell you now."

Jennie and Lisa both fixed their attention on Sunmi. "OK, go on," Lisa urged.

"Well," Sunmi said, trying to plan out what she was going to say, "Jennie, remember you said back in school Hansol never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend?" Jennie nodded. "The reason is that he's asexual."

"So bangin's off the table," Lisa said quietly.

"So what're you going to do?" Jennie asked.

"I honestly don't know," Sunmi admitted. "Hansol seems like a really great guy except for that. And he said all the parts work and he can and will do it if his partner wants to, but it's still kind of weird, you know?"

A silence fell over the room. Finally Lisa, apparently much sobered by the seriousness of the situation, asked "You wanna know what I think?"

"Sure," Sunmi said. "I'm at a total loss here."

Lisa looked at Sunmi, her face serious. "Remember what you told me the first day you were here? About Jennie?"

"Yes," Sumni said, quietly.

"That," Lisa said firmly. "Just like that. Starting at 'What the hell do you think you're doing?' carrying on through 'If you think all boyfriends are like him' - which you already know they're not - and ending up at 'you ought to'." Stopping here, Lisa nodded emphatically.

"Yes, but, I ought to what?" Sunmi asked.

Lisa shrugged. "Who knows? I mean, you've only been on two dates with him! Take some time, see what happens before you make any big decisions. You might discover you two are incompatible for some other reason and this never becomes an issue. Or you might decide that he's such a great guy you don't care that he's asexual. But you ought to give him a fair chance. I mean, you gave Ji-Hoon years and he's a goon!"

Sunmi just sat there, her mouth hanging open. She had never seen Lisa be so insightful, and then to have it happen when she was half-drunk! Finally, her voice returned. "Thanks, Lisa. You're right - I've been having to make so many big decisions lately that I'd forgotten that not all decisions have to be made right now."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Around midnight Chaeyoung and Jisoo pulled up in front of the lodge and started unloading the groceries.

"I'm telling you," Chaeyoung said, "I could have driven part of the way. I only had a couple of beers."

Jisoo shook her head. "Nope. If you think I'd let someone who'd been drinking any amount drive a truck through the mountains at night over ice with the woman I love in the truck, you've got another think comin'!"

Chaeyoung put down the box of groceries she'd been carrying, then took the Jisoo's box from her and set it down. "Well, thank you for being so concerned for my safety." She pulled Jisoo into her arms and kissed her. "Tell you what, since you drove all the way, I'll bring in the rest of the groceries by myself."

"That sounds wonderful," Jisoo said with a smile. "And in the meantime, I'll be downstairs whipping us up a snack for when you're done."

As Jisoo headed down to the kitchen, Chaeyoung headed out to the truck. Four more boxes to be brought in, then all 6 boxes to be carried downstairs, then all the refrigerated and frozen food to be put away before they could go to bed. Yeah, this was gonna be a long night.


	30. Chapter 30

"There! All done!" Chaeyoung put the last bag of rice on the shelf and went to go see what Jisoo had prepared for a snack for them. She found Jisoo sitting at a stool by the prep table, waiting for her. Chaeyoung looked at the table and saw that Jisoo had lit some candles for them to eat by. She'd apparently fixed tea and she'd made finger sandwiches. Jisoo watched as Chaeyoung picked up one of the little sandwiches and devoured half of it in one bite.

"Crab salad!" she exclaimed. Then a puzzled look came over her face. "But. . . we didn't buy any crab salad, or any crab to make salad with!"

Jisoo smiled at her. "It's imitation crab. I bought it at the express lane while you were checking out, then sneaked it into one of the lodge coolers."

Chaeyoung took another bite of her sandwich. "I never would have guessed it was imitation - you make really good crab salad." After a moment's thought, a look of realization came over Chaeyoung's face. "You learned how to make this just for me!"

Jisoo blushed. "No, it's just something a chef should know how to make."

"And it just so happens," Chaeyoung said, leaning in to kiss Jisoo, "that you decided to learn how to make something that's one of my favorite things, and you invested some of your precious little free time in it, because I know this wasn't on your syllabus last semester." She popped the last of her sandwich in her mouth and chewed with apparent satisfaction. "Thank you so much." She leaned in to kiss Jisoo again.

"And we've got dessert," Jisoo said, gesturing to a tray with two candles burning on it, a plate full of marshmallows, a plate of chocolate bars and graham crackers, and a pair of wooden skewers.

"We're making s'mores!" Chaeyoung said, all tiredness forgotten. She arrange a piece of chocolate on a graham cracker, set another graham cracker next to it, then skewered a mashmallow and started roasting it slowly over one of the candles, watching as the marshmallow evenly browned.

"I don't have that kind of patience," Jisoo said. She thrust her skewered marshmallow into the flame, waited for it to catch fire, then blew it out and started assembling her s'more. Suddenly Chaeyoung reached over and lightly slapped the back of her hand, causing her to drop the half-assembled s'more.

"Oh no you don't," Chaeyoug said. I will not have you abusing ingredients like that in my kitchen! Now you are going to sit there patiently while I make you a proper s'more and you'll see how much better it is than that slapdash monstrosity you were about to eat."

Absent-mindedly rubbing the back of her hand, Jisoo sat and watched the roasting marshmallow with all the intensity of a lion watching a herd of wildebeest. Chaeyoung kept turning the marshmallow above the flame until it had reached the perfect shade of golden brown, then sandwiched it between two graham crackers with a piece of chocolate. After silently counting to five, she held it out to Jisoo. "Here," she said, "take a bite of that."

Jisoo leaned forward and took rather a larger bite than she'd originally intended, as Chaeyoung shoved the s'more at her as she was biting down. She chewed slowly, savoring the flavors and textures in her mouth. She observed that a bitter note that was usually present in her s'mores from scorching the marshmallows was totally absent. She also noticed that the marshmallow was more uniformly melted, rather than having a layer of molten liquid surrounding a solid core. She flung herself forward and kissed Chaeyoung, her tongue invading her girlfriend's mouth. Chaeyoung recovered from her surprise quickly, returning the kiss as she put the s'more down and wrapped her arms around Jisoo.

"Well," Chaeyoung said when Jisoo finally pulled away, "if I had known I would get that kind of a reaction, I'd have made you s'mores long ago!"

Jisoo laughed, blushing. "I'd just never experienced anything like that," she said quietly.

Chaeyoung picked up the s'more and fed Jisoo another bite, then took a bite herself. "It's like I keep telling you," she said as she finished the s'more, "cooking isn't difficult. You try to make it difficult, but it's really just a matter of choosing good ingredients, then respecting them during the process. That crab salad shows that you can do it. You've just got to learn to do it to everything."

Jisoo's blush deepened under Chaeyoung's praise. She leaned in and kissed Chaeyoung again, more softly this time.

"We'd better clean this up and get ready for bed," Chaeyoung said. "By which I mean sleep," she added, fixing Jisoo with a playful stare. "Breakfast comes early in the morning, and it won't come any later because we got in from shopping so late." Chaeyoung grabbed Jisoo's half-assembled s'more and threw it in the trash. "We've got the rest of the season to make s'mores," she added, "over a proper campfire, even."

Jisoo smiled as she put away the extra ingredients she'd laid out, then blew out the candles. She quietly followed Chaeyoung up stairs to their room, pausing for a moment on the way to be sure the alarm on the front door was pulsing red to show that it was armed.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Hansol sat in his car, staring at his phone. Before he went in to work, he wanted to hear the message from Sunmi again. Nevermind that he'd already listened to it half a dozen times since waking up. He wanted - no, needed - to hear it again.

"Hi Hansol! It's Sunmi. . . I hate talking to these stupid machines but you're probably getting ready for bed too. Anyway, the message will still be there in the morning. . . I just wanted to say, um, about what you said this afternoon. . . I won't have a day off for a couple of weeks, because we're about to get swamped here at the lodge, but anytime you're near the lodge around lunchtime, just text me and we can have lunch together. I. . . I think you're a really great guy and I'd like to get to know you better."

Hansol laughed, glad that he wasn't getting the immediate rejection he'd feared. As for the future, the future could take care of itself. It wasn't even guaranteed that he'd get to come home at the end of his shift, so there wasn't too much point worrying about the future. The most he'd do would be to plan his day so he could be sure to have around the lodge at lunchtime.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The next morning saw all the women of Fire Lodge sitting around the breakfast table, starting their day with oatmeal with a variety of mix-ins and hot coffee.

"So wait a second," Lisa said, shaking her head, "I must not have heard you right. Did you say your new business is going to be compost?"

Tzuyu nodded, then took a sip of her coffee before responding. "Soyou, A-Yeon's business analyst friend, helped me identify organics recycling as a service that was missing in the valley."

"But," Jisoo protested, "we learned about composting in school. You have to have a high enough temperature to compost. How will you do that with the winter weather?"

"In-vessel composting," Tzuyu said. "Big enclosed bins, with heaters attached in case the temperatures aren't getting high enough on their own."

"That's going to take a lot of space," Jennie said. "Have you found a site for it?"

Tzuyu nodded and said, "There's that big empty warehouse behind the hospital. It's been sitting empty for five years, so I was able to get a lease on it for a song."

"Where will you get the material to compost?" Jisoo asked.

"From all the restaurants in town. Each restaurant generates quite a bit of organic matter each day, certainly enough to keep my business running. All I have to do is convince the restaurant owners that the effort of training their staff to separate out organics will be worth the 3% savings they'll get over having it hauled away as garbage."

Jennie shook her head. "Mr. Lee isn't going to like you undercutting him on the garbage business."

"I had a meeting with him yesterday," Tzuyu said. "He's a charming little old man! Anyway, I'm contracting his trucks and his people to pick up organics in a separate truck and cart it to my place. By my calculation I'll only have to hire about half a dozen workers to handle putting the organics into the composters, and the employment agency is giving me a discount on their finders' fee if I pay for the workers to get the front-loader operations training they'll need."

"Wait a second," Sunmi said, "You're giving the restaurant owners a discount on picking up the organics, you're paying Mr. Lee to use his workers and his trucks, you're hiring half a dozen people that you have to train, plus the cost of the equipment you'll need, plus the warehouse lease and utilities. . . how do you turn a profit?"

"This one's quick," Tzuyu said to Jennie, pointing at Sunmi. "If you don't watch out, I'll have to hire her away from you. Anyway," she turned back to Sunmi, "even with giving restaurants a 3% discount on pickup and hauling of their organics, I'm still turning a profit after I pay Mr. Lee's costs plus a little extra. You wouldn't believe the markup on garbage collection - I won't say how much it is so that Jennie doesn't blow a gasket, but let's just say that any lodge with a savvy enough negotiator could get a discount from Mr. Lee and he'd still turn a hefty profit. Plus, you totally forgot about the compost. Once the material is composted, I just bag it and warehouse it until spring, when a local farming cooperative will pay a decent price for literally tons of compost, plus the sales to local gardeners, plus if I see I'll have more than I can move through those routes, I'm sure I'll be able to find more customers - so many farms are going organic that there's never enough compost to meet demand." She looked up at the clock. "And I'd better hurry and get down to the warehouse - I've got to be there for the technicians to come turn on my electricity, water, and internet."

"Boy," Lisa said, "you've been busy the last couple of weeks!"

Tzuyu paused briefly on her way to the mudroom to get her boots and jacket. "There's only room for one composter in this town," she said, "and I can't afford to let anyone get the jump on me."

"We've been without organics recycling for this long," Jennie said, "so I can't imagine there's someone else out there rushing to take your opportunity away from you. Still, I know you'll feel much better once you've got your system up and running. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the technicians to come out."

Jisoo chimed in, the first thing she'd said all morning. "So I'm guessing I shouldn't plan on you for lunch?"

Tzuyu shook her head, then finished tying her scarf. "I'll probably still be waiting at the warehouse when lunchtime comes. And if by some miracle I am able to leave early, I'll go have lunch at A-Yeon's."

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out," Chaeyoung said. "I hope it all works out the way you've planned."

"Oh, I'm sure there'll be hiccups," Tzuyu said, "but that's what keeps it interesting."

After Tzuyu had left, Jennie stared after her for a moment, then shook her head as if she'd had a chill. "I just can't imagine being that calm about potential business problems," she said.

"That's because she's got a margin for error that you don't have," Lisa said, taking Jennie's hand and squeezing it lightly. "She's choosing to do this, and knowing Tzuyu I'm sure she has a plan B already figured out in case this fails, and if her plan B fails too, she can always go back to Twice. You. . . this lodge is the entirety of your inheritance from your parents. If you can't keep it running, you've got nothing to fall back on."

"Speaking of which," Jennie said, "I've got to get started on my latest marketing newsletter - I've got some open rooms later in the season that need to be filled." Looking around the table and seeing that all her staff were there, she started handing out assignments. "Sunmi, you're on front desk duty this morning. We're not expecting anyone, but I always like to have someone at the desk. During some of your downtime, call the car agencies and make sure transportation has been set up for our new guests arriving tomorrow. Lisa, this week's guests had a lot of special requests about their rooms. Print out the list from the computer and double-check everything. Chaeyoung, you know what needs doing in the kitchen. Also, I need you and Jisoo to nail down a date for the wedding so I can put it in the calendar." Jennie didn't have to bother with making an assignment for Jisoo - that was Chaeyoung's responsibility, as Chaeyoung had informed her the previous year when Jennie tried to tell Jisoo to do something. Jennie appreciated that the kitchen was its own hierarchy - it meant that, with very few exceptions, she didn't have to think about the kitchen.

Jennie stood up, signalling that the meeting was over. "Thanks for the excellent breakfast, Chaeyoung," she said. "I can't wait to see what you come up with for lunch."

Chaeyoung laughed quietly. "Oh, you're in for a real treat at lunch," she said. "Jisoo's had some ideas for some special things for the guests, and we're going to try them out on the staff today."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa had finished double-checking the rooms in the main lodge and was getting bundled up to go out back and check the cottages when Jennie swept in and caught her up in a back hug.

"Seems like you're feeling good. I take it writing the newsletter went smoothly?"

Jennie nodded as she went up on tiptoes to rest her chin on Lisa's shoulder. "The latest newsletters are sent, and I've already had people call to make reservations. Nine room-nights in late March! And here's the best part: They're not skiiers! They're birdwatchers, and they said they'd be here whether it snowed or not!" This good fortune at booking some of the lodge's hardest to book dates had Jennie practically quivering with excitement.

Lisa twisted around in Jennie's arms and caughter her up in a hug. "That's great news! Well, I was just about to go double check the cabins, trying to get them done before lunch."

Jennie shook her head. "Take your time, however long it takes to get everything perfect. This is your only job until you're ready to sign off that all these rooms are perfect. The Tadashi company executives always book the entire lodge, but they're very particular about things and I don't want to give them any reason to be dissatisfied. Some of the other lodges have been trying to lure them away since before. . ." Jennie's face fell.

Lisa hugged Jennie tightly and stroked her hair. "It's okay. It's all gonna be okay."

Jennie leaned back and smiled weakly at her. "I know it well. And most of the time I'm fine, but from time to time I think about my parents in just the right way and the wounds are all fresh again."

Jennie returned her smile. "I'm sure if they could see you now, they'd be proud of what a good job you're doing running the lodge."

Jennie smiled, blinking back tears. "Um. . . " she began hesitantly, "have you thought any more about. . . children?"

Lisa nodded.

"And?" Jennie pressed her.

Lisa shrugged. "I'm still not sure. I can see good arguments on both sides. And it's something that once we start, we can't turn back, so I want to absolutely sure I'm absolutely sure."

Jennie paused for a moment, as if considering how to say what she had to say next, or indeed if she had to say it at all. Finally she nodded decisively and began. "I only asked," she said, "I'm not trying to rush you, but if we want G-Dragon's help, we've got to decide kind of quickly, because he leaves for the army at the end of February."

Lisa nodded. "I'd already thought of that. It's just. . . not a decision I feel like I should rush, you know?"

Jennie reached up to brush Lisa's bangs out of her eyes. "I know," she said, "and if you were the type to rush into it without thinking, I wouldn't want to have kids with you. I just wanted to keep it in your mind. I don't want us to end up like that cartoon-" she struck a dramatic pose, her hand on her forehead- "Oh my God! I forgot to have kids."

Lisa laughed at this, her smile seeming to encompass her whole face. "I won't forget. But right now I've got to get out and check those cabins for the Tadashi party."

Jennie let go of Lisa, reaching out to pat her arm as she stepped back. "Okay. Well, take care, and I'll see you at lunch!"


	31. Chapter 31

Sunmi had just gotten settled in at the desk when she remembered something she needed to do. Taking the phone with her, she headed down to the kitchen. She saw Jisoo, who was busily cutting up vegetables, but no sign of Chaeyoung. She waited quietly for Jisoo to notice her - the last thing she wanted to do was startle someone who was using an obviously very sharp knife. After a couple of minutes, Jisoo looked up and turned toward her.

"Oh, Sunmi," she said, "I didn't hear you come down! Do you need something?"

"Actually, I was looking for Chaeyoung-sunbae," Sunmi said, suddenly nervous about what she had to do.

"She's in the pantry," Jisoo said, pointing the way with her knife. "If you hurry you can catch her before she gets too deep into her notebooks."

"Thanks Jisoo," Sunmi said, hurrying toward the pantry.

As Sunmi rounded the corner into the pantry, Chaeyoung apparently heard her and looked up from the notebooks she was juggling, trying to read in one while writing in another and looking things up in a third. "Sunmi," Chaeyoung said, putting her pen and looking up from the notebooks, "what can I do for you?"

Sunmi suddenly realized she'd probably done this the wrong way around - she should have talked to Chaeyoung before inviting Hansol for lunch. Well, too late to undo it, all she could do was to press onward. "Chaeyoung," she said with a bow, "I'm sorry - I should have talked to you before this - I invited Kim Hansol to stop in for lunch if he's ever near the lodge around lunchtime, because we won't be having time off until after New Year's and I wanted to see him again, and I'm sorry I didn't talk to you first and here's 50,000 won to help pay for the food he eats." The last part of this was said in a rush as she stepped forward and put the bills on the table next to Chaeyoung's notebooks.

It took Chaeyoung a moment to decipher Sunmi's rush of words. She blinked as her brain caught up. She picked up the money and held it out to Sunmi. "You don't have to do this - if I can't manage to feed an extra person at lunch, I might as well hang up my knives and hand the kitchen over to Jisoo."

Sunmi shook her head, making no move take the money back. "I know how tight money is for Jennie-sunbae right now. I want to do my part to help. If I'm going to invite a friend over for lunch, I should pay for the food they eat."

Chaeyoung recognized that Chaeyoung's pride wouldn't let her take the money back, but at the same time she didn't want to accept money from a single mother-to-be who was only working part-time. "Tell you what," she said, "I'll keep this," she folded up the money and put it in her apron pocket, "and I'll use it if I need to. And whatever I don't need, I'll give back to you at the end of the season and you can use it for the baby."

Sunmi nodded. "So long as you promise you'll use it if you need it, that sounds fair."

"I promise," Chaeyoung said. "Now, you'd better get back to the front desk before Jennie thinks you've abandoned your post."

With one last murmured thanks, Sunmi turned and rushed out of the kitchen, remembering to call out "Behind you!" when she walked behind Jisoo.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa closed and locked the door to cabin 3 and started up the path to cabin 4. She stopped for a moment to look around. It was a beautiful day - the sun was shining brightly, reflecting off the snow, and the air was crisp and clean. Looking up the hillside, she saw a purple diamond on one of the trees next to the trail. She thought back to last winter when she and Dahyun had taken off up that trail for what was supposed to be a one-day hike. And then during the course of the next 48 hours she discovered she was gay, got into and out of a relationship with Dahyun, and realized she was in love with Jennie. She sighed. Things were so much simpler then. No questions about babies. No thoughts about the future beyond the end of the season. She shook her head and moved on down the trail.

"You'll never get done if you stand here woolgathering," she said to herself.

"Woolgathering?" asked a voice behind her. "Is that even a thing? Wouldn't you need sheep?"

Lisa spun around. "Dahyun! What are you doing here?"

Dahyun rushed forward and swept Lisa up in a hug. "I was just missing all my friends at Fire Lodge, and I had some time free, so I decided to come up for a couple of nights. I arranged the whole thing with Sunmi Monday evening - and apparently she was true to her word and kept it a secret. I know you've got the Japanese bigwigs showing up on Friday, so I'll be gone Thursday morning."

"Oh. . . wow. . . I. . . um. . ." Lisa was so surprised by the sudden presence of Dahyun that she found herself almost literally speechless.

"Now unless I'm mistaken," Dahyun said, putting her arm around Lisa's shoulders, "you were about to go do something official and assistant managerial up in cabin 4." She started walking in that direction, steering Lisa along with her. "I'll go with you, but I'll stay out of the way so you can get your work done and Jennie doesn't get mad at me."

"It's so weird that you would show up just now," Lisa said, as she dug the keys out of her pocket to unlock the cabin. "I was just thinking about you, and when we get caught in the blizzard."

"Oh, don't even bring that up," Dahyun said, blushing. "Tourist falls head of heels for tour guide - it's the stuff of cheap romance novels. Not exactly my finest moment."

"Speaking of romance," Lisa said, as she made a note on her clipboard that the lock on cabin 4 was stiff and she needed to put some powdered graphite in it, "where's Sana?" She opened the door and let the way into the cabin.

"Ah, you see. . ." Dahyun began, "that's sort of the other reason I'm here. Sana and I aren't together anymore, and she needs some time to calm down."

Lisa stopped counting the office supplies in the desk and spun around suddenly. "You're what?" Sana and Dahyun had seemed head over heels for each other last time they were at the lodge.

"Yeah," Dahyun said, nervously scratching the back of her head, "Chaeyoung and I are back together, and. . . well, I guess I didn't finish breaking up with Sana before we got back together, and she's pretty mad at me right now."

"Didn't exactly finish?" Lisa asked, shaking her head. "How does that even work?"

"Well. . ." Dahyun blushed. "I'd decided I was going to break up with Sana, but I hadn't told her yet when she walked in on me and Chaeyoung naked in bed together.

Lisa put her hand to her forehead, shaking her head slowly. Dahyun's love life was enough to give anyone a headache. "Did Chaeyoung come with you?"

Dahyun shook her head. "No, she stayed back in Seoul to try to help calm Sana down. Probably by taking her out to a bar and finding some sweet young thing for her to hook up with - that usually improves her mood."

"Wait a second," Lisa said, her forehead wrinkled in thought, "I thought Chaeyoung was with Mina and Jeongyeon."

Dahyun nodded. "She was, but she told them she wanted to get back together with me. And now they're both mad at me - not at Chaeyoung. At me. Everyone's mad at me."

"Well, you did steal their girlfriend," Lisa pointed out.

"A technicality. It's just as much that she stole me. Okay, so I may have instigated things by taking Chaeyoung out drinking, but she had to know what I had in mind - it's a script we've played out so many times: I take her out drinking, we come back to mine for a night of bedtime gymnastics, and by breakfast, we're back together again."

"So everyone's mad at you and you come hide out at Fire Lodge," Lisa said, holding up her checklist to show she had to get back to work.

"Pretty much," Dahyun agreed. "Meanwhile, Chaeyoung gets to play the Teflon girl and calm everybody down. By Thursday afternoon, the status should be totally quo again. But enough about me - what's going on with everyone out here?"

So Lisa told her about Tzuyu's new business endeavor in organics recycling, and Chaeyoung and Jisoo's wedding planning, and the big corporate retreat that was happening at the lodge that weekend. . .

"Don't think I haven't noticed what you're not saying," Dahyun said.

"What?" Lisa asked, her face the picture of innocence.

"You're not telling me what's going on with you and Jennie," Dahyun said. "Trouble in paradise?"

Lisa signed and flopped down in the desk chair. "I don't know," she said, looking up at the ceiling. "It's just, well. . ." She looked at Dahyun. "Jennie's decided she wants children."

"Whoa," Dahyun said, "wasn't expecting that!"

"I know, right?" Lisa looked down at the floor. "And she wants them before G-Dragon leaves for the army in March."

Dahyun made a show of counting the months until March on her fingers. "She doesn't know it doesn't work that way, doesn't she?"

Lisa laughed. "No, she wants us pregnant by March, which I suppose would put us having Christmas babies."

"She's obviously put a lot of thought into this."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "You've got no idea. Her idea is that I'll get pregnant by G-Dragon and she'll get pregnant by Bam-Bam - one of the local fightfighters - and so we'll have kids that are half Thai and half Korean, the same as if they were actually ours. Just ours. If that was possible. You know what I mean."

Dahyun let out a low whistle. "Whoo! She's got it bad. And how do you feel about all this?"

"I wasn't sure," Lisa said, shaking her head, "but after talking with you, now I'm sure I'm not ready yet."

"You've got to tell her," Dahyun said, "before she goes any further into this fantasy."

"But how?" Lisa asked, her eyes wide. "How? How do I say 'You know that thing you want, that you think is the only think letting you maintain your grip on sanity? Well, you can't have it.'"

"Well, obviously you don't use those words," Dahyun said, reaching out and taking Lisa's hand. "But I bet if we work together, we can figure out what you ought to say, and you can tell her before lunch."

"You think before lunch is really the best time?" Lisa asked.

Dahyun nodded decisively. "Since it's too late to tell her before breakfast, yes."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jisoo did her best not to show it, but Chaeyoung could tell she was disappointed. Jisoo had devised an elaborate meal, a Korean twist on the Italian "Feast of the Seven Fishes" that she planned to cook for the guests on Christmas Eve. She'd cooked all the dishes for lunch today, to test out the recipes. Chaeyoung had never seen the table at the Fire Lodge with so much food on it, and no one was eating. Sunmi had gone up to her room - the smell of the fish had made her sick. That was at least understandable - pregnancy could wreak havoc with your stomach, from what Chaeyoung had heard. But Dahyun wasn't eating. (What was Dahyun even doing here?) And Jennie and Lisa had been holed up in their bedroom since just before lunch time. An hour had passed and they still weren't out. They were keeping everything warm, but that could only go on for so long - soon it would start to dry out, and soon after that it would be inedible.

"I could be worse," Chaeyoung quietly said to Jisoo. When Jisoo looked up, a haunted look on her face, Chaeyoung said "At least Hansol didn't come by for lunch today."

"I don't know," Jisoo said, smiling wanly, "at least he probably would have had an appetite."

Chaeyoung wrapped Jisoo in a one-armed hug as she looked over all the food that they'd prepared. "Come on," she said, "let's go ahead and eat - there's no point in all of this going to waste."

Jisoo nodded. "I know. I just. . . I wanted Jennie to at least see it, so she could give her approval for me to serve it to the guests on Christmas Eve."

Chaeyoung led Jisoo toward the table. "I'll make sure you get approval to make this for the guests - you've worked your ass off: Coming up with the recipes, finding ways to make them less expensive, preparing the whole thing - I'll make sure you get approval for this."

As Jisoo sat down, she quietly said to Dahyun "Eat up - it won't be good warmed up later."

Dahyun quietly began eating, but Chaeyoung could tell she was distracted - all her attention was still on the door where Jennie and Lisa would emerge when they came out of their room.


End file.
